Group says disability forum answers violated Colorado laws

Concerns about information compiled by Broomfield city staff for use in a political forum have escalated to the state level.

An ethics watch group today filed two complaints with the Secretary of State’s Office. The complaints allege city leaders violated city and state laws when council members running for reelection received material from city staff that might have assisted them in an Oct. 10 forum. The forum was hosted by F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Unlimited, an advocacy for the developmentally disabled.

The complaints — filed by Colorado Ethics Watch, formerly Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government — stem from an incident earlier this month in which an e-mail containing answers to forum questions posed to the candidates were prepared by city staff and forwarded to council.

Candidates at the forum hosted last week by Broomfield Women Democrats questioned whether city staff should have collected the information and said sharing it with incumbents created an unfair advantage.

The Ethics Watch complaint contends city staff’s answers constitute a contribution to a political campaign — prohibited under the Fair Campaign Practices Act — and incumbents didn’t report receiving the benefit of staff time as an in-kind contribution on campaign finance reports.

“These were candidate questions, these did not arise out of city business,” said Colorado Ethics Watch Director Chantell Taylor. “(Assistant City and County Manager) Kevin Standbridge is claiming because he gave this to all City Council members, it’s OK. He distributed those answers the day before the forum and in doing so, he really gave the incumbents an advantage.”

Standbridge, City Manager George Di Ciero and incumbent council members Lori Cox, Walt Spader and Linda Reynolds were named in the complaints.

City officials said they had good intentions in preparing the detailed information and they don’t consider collecting or disseminating the answers — on topics such as what is Section 8 housing, how many group homes are there in Broomfield and who controls county housing vouchers — as biased toward any candidate. The information was prepared in anticipation of requests from candidates, Standbridge stated in an Oct. 5 e-mail.

“I don’t see where staff did anything wrong,” Di Ciero said. “The staff provides information to people all the time and I don’t think anybody needs to read any more into it than that. It wasn’t intended to give any candidate an advantage.”

Di Ciero’s stance — and similar statements by Standbridge and City and County Attorney Bill Tuthill — was why the group filed the complaint, Taylor said.

“It’s especially concerning that the city attorney and the city manager really don’t think they did anything wrong,” she said. “It’s their responsibility to keep the lines drawn between official and political activities. They crossed that line.”

Ethics Watch hopes the case will clarify the boundaries of permissible and impermissible use of city staff, Taylor said.

Boundaries between an individual’s role as candidate and incumbent council member are harder to delineate, said Cox.

“It’s difficult to separate the council member from the candidate,” she said. “As a council member, I’m entitled to that information. If we crossed some sort of ethical line, then my question to them would be when do I stop being a council member?”

In an earlier interview, Cox said she relied on her own research and subject knowledge to participate in the forum, but added it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary — incumbent or not — to turn to the city to provide information.

“If you have a question about Broomfield Municipal Code, you go to the Broomfield municipal government,” she said. “I still believe in my heart that this was a sincere effort to provide answers to the questions of (F.R.I.E.N.D.S).”

Spader was unaware of the complaint and said he couldn’t comment, but Reynolds said she felt the filing was a political jab orchestrated in part by the Broomfield Women Democrats.

“That whole meeting was a setup,” Reynolds said of the forum and the audio recording, which was one of the exhibits filed with the Ethics Watch complaint. “They were setting us up for this.”

One of the questions at that forum asked Ward 5 candidates Reynolds and Dave Ryan what they thought of city staff providing assistance at candidate forums.

At least two other candidates received the information prior to the forum, but Taylor said the organization was naming only incumbents in the complaint because they were documented as being sent the information and witnesses attested they relied on it to answer questions. That could change though if more evidence is forthcoming, she said.

It’s now up to Secretary of State officials to determine if the complaint has merit. If so, the parties will meet before an administrative law judge to hash out the matter.