DENVER-
With Republicans boycotting in protest, legislative leaders decided Wednesday at a closed meeting not to order an ethics investigation of a lobbyist for a teachers union.
A GOP lawmaker had accused the lobbyist of violating House ethics rules because she did not describe a school funding plan as a tax increase.
The decision not to pursue the complaint was made by the Legislature’s Executive Committee, made up of the leaders of both parties in the House and Senate. House and Senate rules require they meet in closed session to discuss ethics complaints.
Republican lawmakers stayed away, with House Minority Leader Mike May saying that holding the meeting in secret was a “dangerous new course, because the proceedings of the meeting are sealed from public view.”
May also issued a letter to his colleagues saying lawmakers were “effectively criminalizing speech.”
May said the ethics process is flawed and should be changed or abandoned and he refused to participate.
House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, criticized the decision by May and Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany to boycott and said they had abdicated their responsibility to the minority party.
“I am disappointed by your decision. You’re depriving the minority party of any representation,” said Romanoff.
Romanoff also denounced May’s letter, telling the House that “the minority leader issued an attack on the integrity of our proceedings. I consider his attack to be groundless and irresponsible.”
The complaint was filed against Lynn Mason, a lobbyist for the Colorado Education Association that represents about 38,000 union teachers across the state. The complaint said Mason sent a memo to union members asking them to ask lawmakers to support a plan by Gov. Bill Ritter to freeze residential property tax rates to raise more money from schools.
The memo urged teachers to tell lawmakers that Ritter’s plan is not a tax increase, as some Republicans described it.
Rep. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, filed a complaint saying Mason should be investigated “for deceptively mischaracterizing the current legislation.”
Mason and Lambert did not return phone calls seeking comment.
CEA spokeswoman Deborah Fallin said the allegation should never have been filed and urged lawmakers to review the ethics complaint process.
Romanoff said lawmakers had to deal with the rules in place when the complaint was filed and lawmakers could review the rules at a later date.
Democrats said Lambert’s complaint was an attempt to divert attention from an ethics complaint against lobbyist William Mutch and a business lobbying group, Colorado Concern.
Democratic Reps. Alice Borodkin of Denver and Nancy Todd of Aurora accused Mutch of orchestrating calls to constituents that said the lawmakers were sponsoring a bill that would raise taxes on their homes.
Todd said there was no such bill. The calls came as lawmakers were considering a bill that would make it easier for home buyers to get builders to make warranty repairs. Borodkin and Todd said the calls were intended to frighten voters into calling and complaining.
Legislative leaders voted to send that complaint to a full ethics committee for investigation, which will begin on Friday.
