State bounces campaign complaints back to city

An administrative law judge has dismissed a campaign finance complaint against a slate of at-large City Council candidates led by anti-tax activist Douglas Bruce, saying the city of Colorado Springs erred when it forwarded the complaint to the state to investigate.

Judge Robert Spencer also dismissed separate campaign finance complaints against council candidates Merv Bennett, Tony Exum, Tim Leigh and incumbent Jan Martin for lack of jurisdiction.

In a March 18 order dismissing the complaint against Bruce and the so-called Reform Team, Spencer said City Attorney Patricia Kelly, not the state, is responsible for enforcing the city’s election laws.

“The matter is returned to the city for investigation and prosecution by the city attorney,” Spencer wrote.

Colorado Springs is a home rule city with a municipal code “that regulates campaign registration and disclosure practices, and provides a process for local investigation and prosecution of suspected violations. It therefore supersedes the provisions of state law that provide for a different hearing and different sanctions,” Spencer wrote.

The complaint against Bruce was originally filed by Colorado Ethics Watch.

The watchdog group asked Mayor Lionel Rivera and Vice Mayor Larry Small to direct Kelly to investigate and possibly prosecute Bruce, the registered agent of the Reform Team political committee, for alleged campaign finance violations.

The group said campaign finance laws require committees operated by candidates to be registered as candidate committees and prohibit candidates from controlling political committees. 

Although the group specifically sought an investigation by the city attorney, Rivera forwarded the complaint to the Secretary of State’s Office, calling it a “better venue” to conduct the investigation.

Luis Toro, director of Ethics Watch, said the group would have filed the complaint with the secretary of state “if we believed the secretary of state had jurisdiction.”

“Judge Spencer’s ruling removes any remaining doubt as to who is responsible to enforce Colorado Springs campaign finance laws, and we call on the city to act promptly to bring this matter to a just resolution,” Toro said in a statement.

“Colorado Springs has to come to grips with how it wants its campaign finance system to work,” Toro said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

The complaint against Bennett, Exum, Leigh and Martin, who were accused of failing to file timely and accurate reports of campaign contributions and expenditures, was filed directly with the secretary of state by Springs resident Charles Prignano.

Prignano said that City Clerk Kathryn Young has “ignored the violations and has publicly announced that she will not enforce campaign finance laws; therefore, he filed his complaints with the secretary of state,” Spencer, the judge, wrote in his order.

Even though jurisdiction wasn’t raised at a March 11 hearing for Bennett, Exum, Leigh and Martin, the judge “finds that subject matter jurisdiction is lacking and therefore the complaints must be dismissed,” Spencer wrote in the order of dismissal.