Gov. Bill Ritter and Attorney General John Suthers tried to quell some of the uncertainty over Amendment 41 in an e-mail Tuesday to government employees.
The pair urged state and local government workers not to make “hasty decisions” about leaving their positions because of the ethics amendment.
Ritter and Suthers said they are “troubled by recent reports” of employees quitting government service and asked them instead to report potential conflicts with the amendment to a supervisor.
Amendment 41 prohibits lawmakers from taking anything from lobbyists and bans government workers and their families from receiving gifts worth more than $50, except on special occasions. The law’s broad language has been interpreted to prohibit children of government employees from accepting certain scholarships and college professors from collecting money from awards such as the Nobel Prize.
“We are confident that at the end of the day, the majority of scholarships for the children of government employees will be acceptable under Amendment 41,” their letter said.
Virginia Buczek, one of seven plaintiffs suing the state over the constitutional amendment, resigned as a planning commissioner in Fire stone because two of her children receive merit-based scholarships at the Colorado School of Mines.
Suthers on Friday told Boettcher Foundation officials, who had sued over the issue, that the amendment doesn’t restrict their scholarships.
One group of state lawmakers plans to introduce legislation to clarify the scholarship and Nobel Prize issues. But other lawmakers argue it is illegal for the legislature to tinker with a voter-approved amendment. They say the courts or another ballot measure must settle the matter.
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-954-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
