A Republican state lawmaker on Monday called for state departments to return money paid in bonuses to outgoing members of former Republican Gov. Bill Owens’ administration.
Sen. Steve Johnson, R-Fort Collins, said the 12 executive directors who served until the end of Owens’ term in January should not be paid a bonus equal to two weeks of pay. In total, those executive directors received bonus payments of $64,000. The average bonus was $5,352.
“This is scandalous,” said Johnson, who is on the Joint Budget Committee, which writes the state’s annual spending plan. “We need to find a way to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
Johnson said he is exploring whether those state departments should return equal sums of money so that it can be used for other purposes.
Cabinet officers were not the only Owens officials who received bonus payments for staying until the end of his term.
Bob Lee, the governor’s chief of staff, received a $7,051 bonus. In addition, Lee was paid $42,790 for unused vacation and sick-leave time.
Dan Hopkins, former spokesman for Owens, received a $5,150 bonus and $13,173 for unused vacation and sick-leave time.
Joe Morales, former executive director of the Department of Public Safety, said he was surprised to get a bonus of $5,150.
The governor told his top staff about the bonus about a week before the end of his term last month, Morales said.
“It was awarded for a job well done, loyalty and for sticking in there,” said Morales. “We take those jobs on to serve, and we hope that we make the state a better place.”
State workers are allowed to collect lump-sum payments for unused sick leave and vacation, said Julie Postlethwait, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Personnel and Administration. Such bonus payments are not the standard practice for top state government jobs.
Jim Carpenter, former chief of staff for Owens’ predecessor, Democratic Gov. Roy Romer, said Romer did not give bonuses to retain appointed state officials.
Carpenter now serves as chief of staff for Owens’ Democratic successor, Gov. Bill Ritter.
Bill Vandenberg, co-director of the Colorado Progressive Coalition, said the bonus payments are not fair to all the other workers who didn’t quit during Owens’ final year in office.
