CENTENNIAL — Councilwoman Sue Bosier was slapped with a written reprimand and public censure early Wednesday for allegedly swiping campaign signs last year and then misleading police about it.
The City Council, acting as the Board of Ethics, handed down the punishment after a drama-filled six-hour meeting.
City Councilman Ron Weidmann, who voted for the punishment, called Bosier’s actions “shameful and very disparaging.”
Bosier and her attorney did not stay for the actual ethics hearing Tuesday evening. They did appear for an earlier hearing during which they asked that several council members be recused from the ethics hearing because they had been critical of Bosier’s actions.
Bosier read from a statement, then left, without giving the city’s legal team a chance to ask her questions.
There was no point in staying for the ethics hearing, attorney Gerald Weaver said, because the board was going to vote against Bosier.
“I’ve made my case,” Weaver said as he left the Centennial municipal building.
Bosier was the campaign manager for Lauri Clapp in her August Republican primary run for Arapahoe County commissioner against then-Greenwood Village Mayor Nancy Sharpe.
On the evening of Aug. 5, Sharpe had someone videotape an area along Orchard Road where she suspected a sign thief might hit. Just after midnight Aug. 6, someone drove up along Orchard Road and pulled into a private driveway.
According to the surveillance video that was played for the board Tuesday evening, a boy started removing Sharpe’s campaign signs that had been placed in the public right of way, which is illegal in Centennial.
The camera operator sent a text to Sharpe, who then called police, according to testimony. When police arrived, they found 10 Sharpe campaign signs in the vehicle Bosier was driving.
Arapahoe County Deputy Gordon Carroll said Bosier “said she worked for the city of Centennial and it was her job to remove signs that were illegally placed.”
However, city rules say code enforcement officers are responsible for removing illegal signs.
Bosier also told law enforcement that the boy was her 15-year-old son. However, investigators later learned the boy was Clapp’s son.
Bosier was issued a summons for making a false report. She wasn’t charged with a more serious crime of theft, in part, because the signs were placed illegally and therefore not Sharpe’s property.
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com
