AURORA | At-Large City Councilwoman Angela Lawson will have to wait another month before Colorado’s Independent Ethics Commission makes a decision on the rules for her dual role as a state employee and an elected city official.
At an April 4 meeting of the commission, members looked at whether Lawson’s status as an employee with the Colorado Secretary of State’s office would prohibit her from accepting gifts that she would otherwise be permitted to accept as an Aurora city council member.
The question at hand has been whether Lawson falls under the state’s ethics rules on accepting gifts — including Amendment 41, which created the ethics commission — or the rules set forth by the City of Aurora, a home-rule municipality.
Aurora City Attorney Mike Hyman contended in a letter to the ethics commission that home-rule cities do not fall under Amendment 41 because the City of Aurora already has a standard of ethics, including rules city council members have to follow when accepting gifts.
While Amendment 41 has established a “gift ban” that prohibits a member of the General Assembly from accepting a gift worth more than $59 from any one person in a given year, Aurora follows an ordinance that was passed by council members just before Amendment 41 came into place in 2006. While the city has not established a gift ban or limit, it does keep in place standards of conduct regarding gifts for lawmakers that Colorado had in place before Amendment 41 was passed.
The ethics commission decided April 4 it would defer the issue of whether home-rule cities are exempt from Amendment 41 to the Colorado Supreme Court to decide.
Lawson said in the meantime, she is being very careful about any activities she is invited to participate in that fall outside of her official duties as a city councilwoman. She said she consults with Aurora’s city attorney on every gift and activity that has so far come her way. She said she is frustrated that the ethics commission has not ruled on her particular case given that she was the one who brought the issue to commission’s attention.
Lawson, who was elected in November 2015 and works as program manager for the state’s lobbyist registration program, began working for the Colorado Secretary of State in 2005.
The commission is slated to meet again and give an opinion on Lawson’s case May 2.