Alderman To 7NEWS: It's None Of Your Business

DENVER -- $8,075 for airfare.

$1,539.40 for tickets to a Las Vegas show.

1,526 for a suite at the Bellagio Hotel.

$1,938.68 for food and drinks, including alcohol at lounges and pool bars.

All for Black Hawk city officials, spouses and friends and all paid for with taxpayer money.

“Is it appropriate that your wife went [to Las Vegas] on the taxpayers’ dime?” CALL7 Investigator John Ferrugia asked long-time Black Hawk Alderman Paul Bennett.

Bennett replied, “It’s none of your business.”

Ferrugia then asked, “Don’t you think its taxpayers’ business?”

Repeating his earlier statement, Bennett refused to answer the question.

According to Black Hawk records, Bennett and six other council members or board of aldermen along with the city manager Richard Lessner have traveled to Las Vegas for a gaming conference and taxpayers foot the bill.

From 2005 through 2007, taxpayers covered thousands of dollars in airfare, limousine rides, hotel stays at the Bellagio, Paris and Mirage, drinks at clubs and pool bars and even a show.

CALL7 Investigators examined records showing $1,539.40 for eight people to attend “O” by Cirque Du Soleil.

We also discovered hotel stays for as much as $381.50 a night for a suite at the Bellagio (a room was initially booked at $264.39 a night, but records indicate Bennett and his wife upgraded to a suite) and $852.63 for food and drinks, including alcoholic beverages, in lounges and pool bars.

Interestingly, the city has two separate travel policies. One policy for regular city employees, which prohibits them from buying alcohol with city funds, and one for the elected city officials, which allows for liquor purchases with your money.

On one trip, city manager Lessner spent $335 on “alcohol and snacks” for himself and members of the city council. When asked by 7NEWS over the phone, Lessner said he believes he falls under the policy for elected officials even though he does not hold an elected position.

CALL7 Investigators also documented a total of $8,075 for round-trip airfare to Las Vegas in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

$4,037.50 of that money paid the airfare for people who are not elected Black Hawk city officials, but instead are spouses or friends.

$2,100 for registration fees for city leaders and non-city officials to attend the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas. It is an annual conference for casino owners and managers however Black Hawk city leaders can not work for any casinos and hold elected office in the city.

For comparison, we asked if Central City, Cripple Creek or even Deadwood, South Dakota sends city officials to the conference. All three are gaming towns with Deadwood having nearly 10 times the population of Black Hawk.

None sends city officials to the conference and in response to our question, the finance officer of Deadwood told 7NEWS, “I don’t know why we would send anyone. It’s a conference for casino owners and managers, not city officials.”

So why then did Black Hawk city manager Lessner and Aldermen Bennett, Kathleen Doles, Richard Cottrell, Tom Kerr, Linda Armbright and Diane Cales all go to the conference with spouses and friends at taxpayer expense?

That’s one of the questions CALL7 Investigators asked several aldermen including Armbright who did not answer and Kerr who said, “No comment.”

Outside the city council chambers in Black Hawk, Ferrugia told Bennett, “I’m asking you about public money.”

Bennett responded, “I don’t care what you’re asking about,” and then called for Black Hawk’s chief of police saying, “Chief, do you want to get this man out of my face before I punch him?”

Ethics Watch is a public interest nonprofit that examines the conduct of public officials and institutions.

The director of Ethics Watch, Chantell Taylor, called the spending a “misuse [of] public dollars” and called for an investigation.

“It’s not in the public’s interest to finance a party or a long weekend in Las Vegas for the aldermen and their spouses,” said Taylor.

CALL7 Investigators found other questionable spending by Black Hawk city leaders including $6,107.71 for a holiday party in 2005, $5,716 for city golf tournaments, $18,651 for new signs on a restaurant/bar that is not operating and thousands of dollars in holiday gifts for alderman and the mayor.

On top of their monthly stipend as city leaders as well as other perks listed above, each aldermen and the mayor received $300 as a gift from the city. They are paid in gift cards or certificates from credit card companies or, in one case, a motorcycle dealer.

It all raises questions about a city rolling in tax revenue.

Now consider the aforementioned casino town of Deadwood, S.D. which has about 1,300 residents, more than 80 gaming halls and a total annual city budget of $22,000,000 including all funds.

Black Hawk, with fewer than 200 residents and fewer than 20 gaming halls, has a total annual city budget of $53 million according to Lessner.

And while the city was happy to show us their 2006 “Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting” they did not want to talk to us about spending.

The award from the Government Finance Officers Association addresses achievement in record keeping, but has nothing to do with how taxpayer money is used.

7NEWS asked repeatedly for on-camera interviews with Black Hawk city leaders to address their spending and other issues.

The city council took the very unusual step of publicly re-affirming Lessner as spokesperson for the city with a vote and then immediately voted again to say city leaders, including Lessner, would only answer questions put in writing.

Our request to sit down with city leaders of Black Hawk for on-camera interviews was denied, so we took our cameras to them.

One more note, last year Gilpin County Schools asked among others, Black Hawk and Central City to help fund some academic and extra-curricular programs for students.

Central City gave the district $75,000, but despite a record of lavish spending on themselves, the Black Hawk Board of Aldermen refused to help and chastised the school district for the request, saying the district needed to get its financial house in order.