The House ethics committee Wednesday ended an investigation of former Republican House Minority Leader Joe Stengel’s off-session pay, saying it was impossible to determine whether he billed taxpayers for days he did not work.
The panel agreed 3-2 that House rules and laws were not specific enough to determine whether Stengel qualified for legislative pay while spending time in Hawaii, campaigning last fall and taking the state bar exam.
Stengel, who resigned his leadership post the day the investigation was launched, admitted bad judgment but has insisted he broke no rules or laws. He said he did legislative work on all of those days.
“We don’t think the evidence here proves probable cause because the rule is too nebulous,” Republican Rep. Lynn Hefley of Colorado Springs said during the hearing.
But the panel did not let Stengel, of Littleton, entirely off the hook. It agreed to draft a letter admonishing him for claiming $23,760 for working 240 out of 247 days after the legislature adjourned last year.
“I think it was a full and fair hearing,” Stengel said after the decision. “I’m somewhat satisfied with the results. Now I can move on.”
In a response filed last week, Stengel said he claimed 237 days of pay, not 240.
He also refunded the $891 he collected while on vacation in Hawaii and during the bar exam. Stengel later said he should have returned only $792 because the length of his vacation was miscounted.
Legislative leaders can claim $99 a day (per diem) when they do legislative work outside of the legislative session.
Democratic Reps. Kathleen Curry of Gunnison and Rosemary Marshall of Denver voted against ending the investigation.
Curry said she wanted more time to consider whether Stengel broke a state law when he campaigned against Referendums C and D and claimed per diem.
“I hadn’t decided conclusively that there was no probable cause. I wasn’t prepared to make that finding today,” Curry said.
Democratic Rep. Paul Weissmann of Louisville, the committee chairman, gave members a draft of the letter he thinks should be sent to Democratic House Speaker Andrew Romanoff and Stengel.
In that draft, Weissmann wrote that returning the $891 Stengel claimed while on vacation and taking the bar “is a tacit admission of wrongdoing and possible ethics violations.”
The committee also talked about a complaint Stengel filed, and subsequently withdrew, last summer against a Democratic lawmaker for campaigning with state resources.
Weissmann said it is “hypocritical” of Stengel to say his campaigning was “somehow different” than his allegations that a lawmaker used a state-funded trip to advocate for Referendums C and D.
“If you follow Rep. Stengel’s rationale, then his campaigning while receiving per diem was also wrong and possibly unethical,” Weissmann wrote in the draft.
The investigation was launched after a group of five constituents filed a complaint against him, asking lawmakers to launch an investigation “into the misuse of taxpayer dollars and possible criminal violations.”
Bill Cisney, one of the letter’s signers, said he was satisfied by the outcome.
“It establishes a bit of precedent that people can refer to in the future should someone else decide to indulge themselves in ways that are questionable,” he said.
Weissmann said the committee will also recommend changes to the House’s ethics and per diem procedures to Romanoff.
Also Wednesday, a panel of outside experts convened for the first time to examine the House’s ethics procedures. The panel is expected to make its recommendations within a month.
A bill that would create a joint bipartisan standing ethics committee stalled in the Senate on Wednesday.
Staff writer Chris Frates can be reached at 303-820-1633 or cfrates@denverpost.com.
