A Colorado Springs resident claims a state senator who is paying only $500 a month rent for a downtown Denver condo is violating the state’s ethics laws.
A complaint filed this week with the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission says Sen. John Morse accepted something of value greater than $50, which was outlawed when voters in 2006 approved Amendment 41.
Morse, a Colorado Springs Democrat and the Senate majority leader, said he has done nothing wrong.
“That is nonsense,” he said. “There is no way this is an Amendment 41 violation.”
The complaint was filed by Brandon O’Dell, a Republican and a 25-year-old graduate student at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. O’Dell declined to provide information about what led him to file the complaint, who researched it and who wrote it, except to repeatedly cite unnamed “friends.”
Morse’s living arrangements drew attention after a Fox 31 News feature last month about lawmakers living in Denver during the legislative session. Morse said on camera that he rented the place from a friend for $500.
The two-bedroom condo is at Brooks Tower and is owned by Bill Mead of Colorado Springs. Morse said he has known him for 31 years, and once roomed with Mead and his brother, whom he met in EMT school. Morse is the former police chief of Fountain.
Morse said he uses one bedroom and leaves on weekends, when Mead usually comes to Denver. Morse also said Mead allows other friends to drop by and stay throughout the week. One guest once stayed two months.
Morse faces a tough re-election bid this year, from Republican Owen Hill, and said he believes questions about his living arrangements are politically motivated.
The complaint says the type of condo where Morse is staying rents for around $2,600 a month, which Morse said is “absolutely untrue.”
“They are out of their mind,” he said. “No one would pay $2,600 a month for a place where they can be kicked out on the weekends. I am basically subletting a room.”
O’Dell called the situation an “unprecedented violation of Amendment 41” and requested an investigation.
The ethics commission was created as part of Amendment 41. The chief backer, now U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, admitted after it passed that the measure was so poorly written it was open to
