If Susan Kirkpatrick were a political neophyte, her actions might be excusable. But the former Fort Collins mayor and councilwoman, and now member of Gov. Bill Ritter’s Cabinet, clearly should have known better.
Not only did she encourage a plan to have employees use state emergency computers to buy World Series tickets, she helped initiate it.
Republicans, wanting to make political hay of the misdeed, say those emergency “computers could literally mean the difference between life and death for Colorado citizens.”
State Rep. Mike May wrote a letter this week to Gov. Ritter demanding disciplinary action. Ritter’s spokesman, Evan Dreyer, has acknowledged it was a “bad idea” and it is “being addressed in an appropriate administrative manner.”
Kirkpatrick apologized on Thursday. “It was a stupid mistake of mine to agree to it. I’m so sorry ,” she said. “I would never put the citizens of the state at risk .”
Kirkpatrick is executive director of the Department of Local Affairs and, as such, oversees the Emergency Management Division, which maintains the state’s Emergency Operations Center. Emergency operations houses communications equipment, including special computers used to coordinate emergency responses to tornadoes, fires and other disasters, natural or otherwise.
As it turned out, there was no harm done because Kirkpatrick reversed her decisions — yes, decisions — before tickets went on sale.
After deciding that the emergency operations computers could not be used, Kirkpatrick then gave employees permission to use their desk computers to buy tickets. However, that runs contrary to a state personnel rule that says, “No employee shall use state time, property, equipment, or supplies for private use or any other purpose not in the interests of the State of Colorado.”
Kirkpatrick then reversed that decision, too, and e-mailed employees telling them not to use taxpayer-funded equipment to get Rockies tickets. Kirkpatrick admits now she didn’t know the rules.
Ritter’s chief of staff, Jim Carpenter, hammered home the point before tickets were set to go on sale Monday, e-mailing all state workers to remind them about rules that prohibit employees from using their computers for personal use.
We understand many in Colorado have been gripped by Rockies fever and the chance to see the World Series for the first time in our state. But we were bothered by the poor judgment shown by Kirkpatrick and David Holm of emergency management, who cooked up the plan. As head of DOLA, she is in a position that requires sound judgment.
We expect more out of her and our state leaders.
