DENVER—Gov. John Hickenlooper can’t accept about $1,000 from NBC News to cover his travel expenses to New York to appear on a panel about education, Colorado’s Independent Ethics Commission ruled Monday.
The governor’s office sought the opinion, saying NBC News offered to pay travel expenses for Hickenlooper and a staff member. The Democratic governor appeared on the Sept. 26 Education Nation panel with Brian Williams and nine other governors.
Hickenlooper spokesman Eric Brown said that as responsible stewards of the state’s finances, the governor explored every possible way to accept NBC’s offer to reimburse states for the costs.
The three-member ethics commission said that because NBC News is a for-profit company, the governor’s office may not accept $1,075 reimbursement. Public officials are allowed to accept travel funds to appear on panels only if the panels are organized by nonprofits or other governments.
The travel was paid for out of a discretionary fund in the governor’s office budget. His trip lasted about 48 hours.
Commissioners wrote, “While the state may have benefited indirectly from the Governor’s presence on the NBC News panel, the bolstering of the Governor’s national profile on an important political issue very directly benefits the Governor.
“Neither the request nor the Governor’s legal counsel identified any specific state legislative or administrative issue or agenda that required the Governor’s presence on the panel.”
Brown said Christine Scanlan, Hickenlooper’s senior education policy adviser and director of legislative affairs, traveled with Hickenlooper.
Ethics commissioners said Hickenlooper’s request to accept the reimbursement was “reasonable,” but that accepting the money would violate Colorado’s gift ban.
Brown noted that commission members found nothing inappropriate about the trip.
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Independent Ethics Commission opinion:
