Denver’s Board of Ethics issued a written opinion finding Denver International Airport Manager Kim Day violated the city’s code of ethics by accepting a paid trip to Greece from a company negotiating a contract with the airport.
The opinion written by Ethics Board Director Michael Henry and mailed Monday, said Day should have known better because she received ethics training “soon after you were appointed as Manager of DIA.”
Specifically, Day did not follow a section in the code that advises city officers, officials or employees “to avoid special influence by those who give gifts.”
The airport has since reimbursed $5,700 to Insight Media Limited, the London company that paid for her flight and lodging to attend the Airport Cities Conference in Athens, Greece, in 2009.
At the time, Insight Media was negotiating with DIA for a $370,000 contract to bring the Airport Cities Conference to Denver in 2012.
The contract was finalized the day before the 2009 conference began.
Day said an airport administrator officer contacted the ethics board for an opinion before accepting the Insight money. But ethics board director Henry said his notes reflect there was no discussion of a contractor paying to fly Day overseas.
During the ethics board meeting last week, Day said the financial terms of the contract had already been negotiated when she accepted the trip from Insight.
Day could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
Airport spokesman Jeff Green said it should be pointed out that Day had asked for the advisory opinion from the board.
“We had said that if we did something wrong we wanted to make sure we could prevent it from happening again,” Green said. “That said … we will make sure that we have changed our processes to not do it again.”
If ever there is a gray area, Green said, “we will seek an opinion and make sure we do it right.”
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
