About Colorado Ethics Watch

Colorado Ethics Watch uses high impact legal actions to hold public officials and organizations accountable for unethical activities that undermine the integrity of state and local government.
Sign up for Email Alerts



image Ethics Watch Tipline
image
image

“Government can only be accountable if taxpayers can see what they are buying and how much they are paying for it.”

State Treasurer Cary Kennedy commenting on the Colorado Department of Treasury website that tracks how Colorado tax dollars are spent, as quoted on TheDenverChannel.com 03/07/2010.

Related Ethics Headlines

Danner addresses Hatch Act

By Brian Smith, Craig Daily Press,
March 11, 2010

Moffat County Commission­er Audrey Danner addressed Wednesday the circumstances behind her research of the Hatch Act, a federal law that surfaced recently at the local level, during a news conference at the Moffat County Courthouse.

Written in 1939 and amended in 1940, the Hatch Act restricts political activity of people employed by state or local agencies who work in connection with programs financed, at least to some degree, by federal money.


MCTA discusses voting violations

By Brian Smith, Craig Daily Press,
March 11, 2010

The Moffat County Tourism Association board hosted a special meeting Tuesday to address an illegal voting method used during the hiring process of its new director Marilynn Hill.

The MCTA board voted by anonymous paper ballot March 2 — a method Moffat County attorney Kathleen Taylor said was a violation of Colorado’s Sunshine Law.

Board member Frank Moe brought the issue to the board’s attention later that day after reading about a similar issue the Grand Junction City Council faced.


District attorney gets DUI

By Steve Grazier, Cortez Journal,
March 9, 2010

The 22nd Judicial District's top law enforcement official was arrested in February for driving under the influence of alcohol and faces a myriad of criminal charges.

District Attorney James Warren Wilson was pulled over about 10:15 a.m. Feb. 21 for making an unsafe pass of another vehicle along Colorado Highway 24 near Buena Vista, according to Sgt. John Hahn, public information officer for the Colorado State Patrol's headquarters in Denver. Wilson was driving a 2009 Jeep utility vehicle and heading west.


Western Tradition attacks 98-year-old corporate campaign spending ban

By David O. Williams, The Colorado Independent,
March 9, 2010

The conservative Astroturf group that spent thousands to swing the Longmont City Council back to the right last November and keep the Garfield County commissioner board in the oil and gas camp in 2008 has filed a lawsuit in Montana to overturn that state’s 98-year-old ban on corporate spending on political campaigns.


Colo. backs off claim of investigation of lawmaker

By Associated Press, The Denver Post,
March 8, 2010

Web Site Tracks Where Your State Tax Money Goes

By Staff Reporter, TheDenverChannel.com,
March 7, 2010

The Colorado Department of Treasury Web site now has a new feature that shows Coloradans how their state tax dollars are spent.

The feature, launched Sunday, also lets visitors vote on whether they agree with how the funds are collected and spent.

“Government can only be accountable if taxpayers can see what they are buying and how much they are paying for it,” said State Treasurer Cary Kennedy.


Complaint against DA over pot dispensary on hold

By Daniel Chacon, The Colorado Springs Gazette,
March 4, 2010

A Colorado Springs city councilman who threatened to file a complaint against Fourth Judicial District Attorney Dan May over a medical marijuana dispensary said today he’s ready to pull the trigger.


State senator subject of fraud probe

By Steven K. Paulson Associated Press, The Pueblo Chieftain,
March 4, 2010
DENVER — A Colorado state senator and the mortgage company where he works are being investigated for allegedly misleading consumers by sending out advertising fliers that look like official tax documents, a state official said Wednesday.

 Investigators believe Republican Sen. Ted Harvey and American Home Funding — the Greenwood Village company where he works as a broker — violated state laws by sending the ads, said Colorado Division of Real Estate Director Erin Toll.

Springs police revamp take-home vehicle policy

By Daniel Chacon, The Colorado Springs Gazette,
March 3, 2010


Law could end Wiggins’ run for Routt County sheriff

By Zach Fridell, Craig Daily Press,
March 3, 2010

One of the three candidates for Routt County sheriff is looking into a 1939 federal law that could prevent him from running for elected office, but he said he is continuing his campaign until the question is resolved.

Garrett Wiggins said he is looking through the Hatch Act to determine whether his position as All Crimes Enforcement Team drug task force commander would disallow his candidacy.


Attorney: City vote was illegal

By Emily Anderson, The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel,
March 2, 2010

The appointment of new Grand Junction City Council member Sam Susuras may have involved illegal voting methods, according to open meetings law and a prosecutor handling a lawsuit recently levied against the Fort Morgan City Council for similar conduct.


May says he acted as citizen, not DA, to complain about pot dispensary

By Daniel Chacón, Colorado Springs Gazette,
March 1, 2010

Fourth Judicial District Attorney Dan May’s efforts to get rid of a medical marijuana dispensary in his neighborhood have caught the attention of a Colorado Springs city councilman who says he’s considering filing an ethics complaint against May.


Coloradoan earns First Amendment service award

By Staff, Fort Collins Coloradoan,
February 27, 2010
The Fort Collins Coloradoan's effort to fight for transparency at Colorado State University was honored Friday with one of the Colorado Press Association's highest honors.

The paper also won several honors Friday night at the annual Colorado Associated Press Editors and Reporters awards banquet.


OUR VIEW: DA phones landlord of pot dispensary he dislikes

By Wayne Laugesen, Colorado Springs Gazette,
February 24, 2010

District Attorney Dan May told The Gazette’s opinion department Wednesday that he contacted the landlord of a medical marijuana business because of a desire to get the


House leaders get more leeway in launching ethics probes

By Jessica Fender, The Denver Post,
February 24, 2010

House leadership will now meet in private with lawmakers who face ethics complaints before the complaints get a full and public committee hearing.

Lawmakers today unanimously approved the rule change, characterized by bi-partisan proponents as a way to help the House speaker, majority leader and minority leader decide whether to launch full-scale investigations. One lawmaker argued the change could lead to mini-investigations away from public view.


Denver Post muddles Colorado high court Dallman campaign finance ruling

By John Tomasic, The Colorado Independent,
February 24, 2010

It was an easy hook but it garbled Jessica Fender’s Denver Post story. Fender was reporting the fact that the Colorado Supreme Court found Amendment 54 unconstitutional, striking down in Dallman v Ritter the restrictions on campaign donations put in place by the amendment at the beginning of last year. But Fender too breezily tied the story to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last month in Citizens United,


State Supreme Court declares ‘clean government’ Amendment 54 unconstitutional

By John Tomasic, The Colorado Independent,
February 22, 2010

In a four to one vote, the Colorado Supreme Court this morning declared that so-called clean elections Amendment 54 unconstitutionally tramped on the right to free speech. The Court barred authorities from enacting its provisions.


Amendment 54 ruled unconstitutional

By Jessica Fender, The Denver Post,
February 22, 2010

A voter-approved Constitutional amendment barring campaign contributions from unions and some state contractors was today ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court.

The decision wraps up a 16-month-long fight over the constitutionality of a law that opponents said curbed free speech rights and which threatened to chill donations to political candidates.


Buescher looking to state court ruling on campaign finance limits

By Peter Roper, The Pueblo Chieftain,
February 18, 2010
The Colorado Supreme Court should give corporations and labor unions some kind of guidance before June on whether state limits on their political campaign contributions and electioneering are still in force — or wiped away by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Leigh resigns from Memorial panel over possible conflict

By Daniel Chacon, The Colorado Springs Gazette,
February 15, 2010

Colorado Springs businessman and mayoral candidate Tim Leigh, who was selected outright to serve on the new Citizens Commission on Ownership and Governance of Memorial Health System, has resigned from the panel amid revelations that his wife works at Memorial.


Syndicate content
image


© 2009, Ethics Watch, All Rights Reserved.
1630 Welton Street, Suite 415, Denver, CO 80202 • Contact Us
a project of
image
image

image