The House Ethics Committee today dismissed a complaint against Rep. Joe Stengel over state pay the Littleton Republican collected while on vacation in Hawaii.
Under House rules, there is no way to determine what constitutes a day of work, the committee decided on a 3-2 vote.
Rep. Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville, said a work definition was impossible with a citizen Legislature that only meets 120 days a year.
“If the question always comes back to days not worked. How do you determine a day not worked in the confines of the world we live in?” said Weissmann, who voted with two Republicans on the committee to dismiss the complaint.
The committee agreed to send a letter to House leaders saying Stengel raised questions about his own actions when he filed a complaint against Democrats, claiming they violated state law by campaigning for a ballot measure while on a legislative tour in southern Colorado.
Rep. Lynn Hefley, R-Colorado Springs, a member of the Ethics Committee, said legislative leaders need to look at the rules and determine if changes are needed because they are too vague. She said under current rules, it might be wrong for a lawmaker to collect a per diem and later go to party caucuses, as many lawmakers did Tuesday night.
Stengel said he was satisfied that the committee reviewed the evidence and issued a fair ruling.
“I said all along that I worked, I was doing the job I was elected to do,” Stengel said. “It’s a citizen Legislature. We’re all different, we bring different experiences and different requirements to the job,” Stengel said.
Stengel had stepped down as minority leader after the complaint and he said today he has no desire to return to a leadership position but plans to stay in the Legislature.
The complaint was one of three filed against state lawmakers in the past month.
Sen. Deanna Hanna, D-Lakewood, resigned this week amid a scandal over her request for a campaign contribution as “reparations” from a group that supported her opponent. She said the attention would hurt her party’s chances of keeping its majority.
Earlier this year, House leaders dismissed an ethics complaint against state Rep. Angie Paccione, D-Fort Collins, saying there was no evidence she abused her office by offering prizes for contributions to her congressional campaign, including an introduction on the state House floor.
The complaint filed by constituents alleged that Paccione, a Democrat from Fort Collins, could have used her office to reward contributors. House leaders determined there was no evidence that occurred and no need to refer it to the Ethics Committee.
Stengel had said he believes the complaints against him and Paccione were politically motivated.
Before this year, the last time an ethics complaint was filed in the House was in 1998, when state Rep. Tony Grampsas, R-Evergreen, was exonerated over an alleged conflict of interest in withholding certain funds from the University of Colorado after a friend was fired.
