A Win for Transparency

In response to a complaint filed by Ethics Watch, Denver District Court Judge Norman Haglund ruled on May 14 that the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission's (IEC) withholding of documents from public review was improper, and ordered the IEC to give Ethics Watch access to review documents regarding advisory opinions and letter rulings within 15 days.  In addition, the judge ruled that Ethics Watch is entitled to recover its attorneys fees from the IEC.  This decision affirms Ethics Watch's position that the IEC is indeed subject to Colorado sunshine laws and cannot lawfully operate in secret.

The case stemmed from an open records request submitted to the IEC by Ethics Watch last August asking to inspect documents related to complaints, advisory opinion and letter ruling requests received by the commission.  The IEC did not provide any documents responsive to Ethics Watch's CORA request, instead filing suit in Denver District Court for an order to protect all information the IEC reviews.  In October, Ethics Watch filed its own countersuit against the IEC for failure to permit inspection of documents under CORA.  The trial of these cases took place on May 12 and the judge's ruling was issued only two days later. 

Find more information about the complaint and decision here and here.

Read the Associated Press story here.

Read the Colorado Independent stories here and here.

Read the Colorado Statesman stories here and here.

Read the Examiner.com story here.

McInnis Caves under Pressure from Ethics Watch: Sneaks in Filing

On May 20, Ethics Watch learned that former U.S. Congressman Scott McInnis had finally filed his candidate affidavit for governor, following weeks of questionable campaigning and a formal request from Ethics Watch for an investigation by Secretary of State Bernie Buescher into possible campaign finance violations.  Mr. McInnis quietly filed the paperwork a day after Ethics Watch submitted new evidence of his unlawful campaigning to Secretary Buescher. 

Ethics Watch had requested that Secretary Buescher invoke his authority to launch a formal inquiry into whether Mr. McInnis violated state campaign finance law by publicly announcing his candidacy for governor and subsequently soliciting, receiving or expending campaign funds before filing his candidate affidavit and registering a candidate committee.  Ethics Watch also asked the secretary of state to investigate whether Mr. McInnis violated laws prohibiting coordination between a candidate and a 527 political organization. 

Despite statements from his campaign staff that Mr. McInnis would announce his candidacy on his own terms, his secret filing makes it obvious that he caved under intense public pressure generated by Ethics Watch. 

See more details about Scott McInnis' pre-filing campaigning here and here.

Read the Denver Post story here.

Read the Associated Press stories here and here.

Read the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel stories here and here.

Read the Denver Daily News story here.

Read the Westword story here.

Read the AllHeadlineNews.com story here.

Read the Durango Herald story here.

Listen toChantell Taylor on AM760 Radio with David Sirota here.

Listen to Chantell Taylor on AM760 Radio with Mario Solis-Marich here.

Coalition Calls for Restart of CSU Chancellor Search

On May 21, Colorado Ethics Watch, Colorado Common Cause and New Era Colorado joined together to call on the CSU Board of Governors to rescind its closed door decision naming Joe Blake as the sole finalist for CSU chancellor. The groups also called upon the Board of Governors to start a new, transparent search process to consider a number of qualified applicants, including Mr. Blake.  The group decried the process as tainted by a lack of transparency and apparent conflicts of interest.

According to the group, the process that resulted in the selection of Mr. Blake as the sole finalist denied students and the public a meaningful opportunity to provide input on this critical hiring decision.  The stealth process has also been challenged as a possible violation of Colorado's Open Meetings Law in a lawsuit filed by three news outlets. 
 
Apparently in response to the group's call for a redo, the CSU Board of Governors re-selected Mr. Blake as the sole finalist in a public meeting on May 26.

See more details about the CSU Chancellor search here and here.

Read the Fort Collins Coloradoan story here.

Ethics Watch Sues IEC to Void Advisory Opinion Decided in Secret, Challenge Bad Precedent

On May 19, Ethics Watch filed a complaint with Denver District Court against the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission (IEC), asking the court to void an April 17 advisory opinion allowing a lawmaker to take an expense-paid 10-day trip to Turkey.

Advisory Opinion 09-04, issued on April 17, 2009, approved a legislator's request to accept an invitation to join a trip to Turkey.  According to the request, travel expenses for the legislator and her spouse, except for airfare, would be paid for by one or more nonprofit organizations.  In its Advisory Opinion, the IEC ruled that payment for the Turkey trip would be deemed a "gift to the Colorado government" and not a gift to the legislator subject to the gift ban.  However, there was no evidence that the organization paying for the trip offered the gift to the state as opposed to the legislator.      

The purpose of the gift ban was to put an end to gifts given to public officials with discretionary power.  With this decision, the IEC has gutted the ban by setting a precedent that only a colorable argument needs to be made that the gift was actually to the state instead of to the person. 

Read the complaint and original IEC opinion here.

Read the Associated Press story here.

Read the Denver Post story here.

Read the Colorado Independent story here.