Castle Rock – Castle Rock, like towns across Colorado, is assessing the difference between an act of kindness and an offer to buy influence, questions raised by voters’ passage of Amendment 41 last fall.
The Town Council will consider new “rules of conduct” even more strict than the constitutional amendment demands. While Amendment 41 allows up to $50 a year in gifts from a donor, Castle Rock will allow nothing that might come with strings attached.
“It means you and I can still have coffee to discuss town business, but I buy my own coffee,” said David Minke, Castle Rock’s assistant town manager.
Municipal and county leaders across Colorado question where the line falls for elected leaders and public employees, such as whether a free lunch from the chamber of commerce is still allowed, or whether a sick or injured firefighter can still accept public donations.
A mistake could land them in front of a state ethics panel.
“We’ve got town council members all over this state who make little or nothing, and they’re wondering if their kids can accept a scholarship,” said Geoff Wilson, the staff attorney in charge of drafting legislation for the Colorado Municipal League.
The amendment allows home- rule cities, such as Castle Rock, Denver and Aurora, to adopt their own policies on gifts and ethics. That covers only 95 of the state’s 270 municipalities. All other towns, cities and Colorado’s 63 other counties must abide by Amendment 41’s vague language.
Lawmakers are drafting clarifying language, and might ultimately kick the matter to the state Supreme Court for interpretation. But most home-rule cities are likely to keep their existing rules in place.
Denver and Aurora ethics rules already exceed most of those in Amendment 41. Denver allows no gifts of more than $25, and any meal or gift must not be an attempt to receive a benefit from the city, said assistant city attorney David Broadwell.
After Amendment 41 passed, Aurora leaders “reaffirmed” their commitment to following the ethics rules they have had in place since 1988, said city attorney Charlie Richardson.
In El Paso County, commissioners received a memo from the county attorney listing dos and don’ts under Amendment 41, said Commissioner Douglas Bruce.
Bruce, the author of the 1992 Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, refuses any benefit for his public service, even donating his paycheck to charity.
A glass jar on his desk holds all the ripped-up invitations to cocktail parties, luncheons and “junkets” from special interest groups, as well as a parking pass sent to him by the city for the municipal Colorado Springs Airport.
“There’s no such thing as something for nothing,” he said.
Staff writer Joey Bunch can be reached at 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com.
