DENVER—Lawmakers expanded their investigation into allegations the second-ranking Senate Democrat steered state contracts to his own company on Monday.
The legislative Ethics Board quickly expanded its scope to include all contracts Sen. Abel Tapia’s company received from the State Fair over the past seven years.
The Pueblo Democrat, and the Senate’s president pro tem, asked for the investigation after reporters questioned a bill he sponsored to pay off state fair loans in 2006.
Tapia said his firm, Abel Engineering, was awarded seven contracts over the past seven years totaling $480,000. He said his firm bid on the contracts and that he had no role in deciding who won.
Sen. Bill Cadman, a Republican from Colorado Springs who was appointed to the standing committee, said Tapia’s request for an investigation should not be limited to his 2006 vote.
“I feel we’re in a tough spot. We’re issuing an opinion on something that has already happened,” Cadman told the four-member panel.
He said the board can only issue advisory opinions, but anyone could file a formal complaint based on the board’s findings that could result in formal charges. Charges would require that an ethics committee be formed with power to punish Tapia if it finds he had a conflict of interest.
Tapia said a KUSA-TV reporter had raised questions. He said three of his managers handled the contracts and he didn’t contact fair officials about those bids.
Tapia said he asked for the ethics committee investigation because he believes he did nothing wrong. He said the Colorado General Assembly is a citizen legislature and almost all of the 100 lawmakers have day jobs that could have an appearance of a conflict of interest.
“If the ethics committee recommendation to me is that it’s not a conflict but it is the appearance of a conflict and I shouldn’t argue or vote for any of those bills, I’ll honor that,” Tapia said.
During the time the contracts were awarded, Tapia served as chairman of the Joint Budget Committee, which sets the state’s spending priorities, and Senate Appropriations, which decides which projects are funded. Tapia said he voted on bills that later funded the contracts, but he said it’s the state, not the Legislature, that decides how the money is spent.
