Ten Colorado public officials made an ethics watch list for “most corrupt public officials” for everything from undisclosed conflicts of interest and public censure to campaign finance violations and assault with a deadly weapon.

The first annual “Ethics Roundup” by Colorado Ethics Watch, a self-claimed independent political watchdog group, sorts through news stories, campaign finance reports, state audits, e-mails and personal financial and travel disclosure forms to develop the list. The list includes state lawmakers, local officials and the Secretary of State.

Ethics Watch put the first annual list together to encourage accountability in state government, said Chantell Taylor, director of Colorado Ethics Watch.

“Never is ignorance of the law an excuse. We should expect our public officials to know what it is they can and can’t do with our resources and with our trust,” she said during a teleconference yesterday morning announcing the list.

Six Republicans vs. two Democrats on list

Six Republicans and only two Democrats made the list, leaving Republicans on the list accusing Ethics Watch of an unbalanced report. Two unaffiliated local public officials also made the list and Republican Colorado State Board of Education member Bob Schaffer made the list as “dishonorable mention” for “failing to recuse himself from votes in which he had a conflict of interest.”

Coffman made the list for allegedly allowing an employee, Dan Kopelman, to use state resources for his personal business-related activities concerning Kopelman’s political consulting firm Political Live Wires. Kopelman both managed the political consulting firm and worked in the Secretary of State’s office at the same time.

Coffman is also on the list for an alleged conflict of interest over certifying electronic voting machines. The allegation stems from a relationship Coffman has with Phase Line Strategies, LLC, a Colorado political consulting firm he hired to manage his campaign for Congress. Premier Election Systems, Inc., was one of the applicants for certification of its electronic voting machines. Premier hired Phase Line to act as its lobbyist in the state, which it did while also working for Coffman — a relationship that Ethics Watch said is a conflict of interest. Coffman ultimately certified the voting systems manufactured by Premier.

But in a recent statement, Coffman called Ethics Watch a liberal organization that often gets facts confused or just flat-out wrong.

“Chantel Taylor is a fraud and Ethics Watch is a front organization for the Democrat party,” he said. “Taylor creates the fiction of nonpartisanship so her organization can maintain a nonprofit tax status by gently slapping a few Democrats on the wrist from time to time while gut punching as many Republicans as she can find.”

Denver City Auditor Dennis Gallagher — a Democrat — is also on the list for a conflict of interest. Ethics Watch alleges that it was unethical for Gallagher to hire Denis Berckfeldt, founder of media consulting firm Prairie Fire Communications, LLC, as the communications director of the auditor’s office. Gallagher’s campaign committee paid Berckfeldt for consulting services while he was employed at the auditor’s office, according to campaign finance records revealed by Ethics Watch.

But Berckfeldt told the Denver Daily News yesterday that Ethics Watch is taking an unnecessary step backwards because the Denver Ethics Board already absolved both himself and Gallagher of any “wrongdoing or unethical behavior.”

“Moreover, he did not pay me consulting fees,” added Berckfeldt. “I did reelection work for him on a pro-bono basis, and none of the work was done on city time or using city resources.”

“Clearly … they are very selective in the documentation and summary of events,” he continued. “They chose NOT to note that indeed the ethics commission dismissed the allegations. Yet Ethics Watch suggests that because charges were made, they must be true …”

‘Left wing nut job organization’

Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany from Colorado Springs, who made the list for allegedly illegally using the state seal on the Senate GOP communication office’s Web site and paying for the site with private donations, also lashed out at Ethics Watch for being an unbalanced liberal organization.

“It’s great. If this left-wing nut job organization wants to say those things about him … it just shows their true colors in putting this together,” said spokesman Joe Megyesy on behalf of McElhany. “Look at the list, it says everything you need to know about the people who they were going after.”

Megyesy also pointed out that Sen. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, who is currently being investigated for ethics violations related to a vote that may have benefited his company Abel Engineering Professionals, is not on the list.

Taylor said the Tapia case broke just as the Ethics Watch report was going to press. She defended her organization as a nonpartisan, independent watchdog group without any political motivations.

“We don’t put people on the list based on their party affiliation,” she said. “We put people on the list based on their conduct.”

Also on the list:

• Rep. Douglas Bruce, R-Colorado Springs: Censured for kicking a newspaper photographer. Also, violating local housing codes on investment properties in El Paso County.

• Rep. Wesley McKinley, D-Walsh: Failure to comply with campaign finance disclosure laws.

• Republican Alamosa County Commissioner Darius Allen: Physically assaulting a county citizen at a public commissioners meeting.

• Republican Arapahoe County District Attorney Carol Chambers: Censured for misuse of her office to threaten attorneys and judges.

• Republican Aurora City Councilman Ryan Frazier: Receiving campaign contributions from partners at a corporation at the same time he voted in favor of a “lucrative” municipal court contract for the corporation. No official misconduct or criminal action was taken.

• Unaffiliated Black Hawk Mayor David Spellman: Assaulting his wife, the city manager of Central City.

• Unaffiliated Wheat Ridge City Councilman Terry Womble: Use of a false identity to disparage a fellow council member.