Legislature drops Lamberts ethics complaint

DENVER - The Legislative Council Executive Committee dismissed an ethics complaint against a teachers union by a Colorado Springs lawmaker Wednesday, but not before Republican members called the process unfair and walked out of the meeting.

Rep. Kent Lambert filed a complaint Tuesday accusing the Colorado Education Association of deceptive lobbying for saying in e-mails that a proposed property tax freeze for schools is not a tax hike and would take pressure off future school cuts. Lambert said both statements are untrue.

A committee composed of the four highest-ranking Democrats and two highest-ranking Republicans in the Legislature met in a closed session Wednesday and decided not to investigate the matter further.

Lambert said he was disappointed, and CEA spokeswoman Deborah Fallin said she was pleased with the dismissal of the “frivolous political charge.”

Before the committee began its deliberations, however, House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, and Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs, left the room, saying they would not take part in a partisan process where the outcome was predetermined.

May criticized the process, noting the committee had voted weeks ago to investigate a deceptive lobbying charge by two Democrats against a business-group lobbyist. Allowing a partisan group to decide which claims made by lobbyists are or aren’t true and then to punish them amounts to an abridgement of free speech, he said.

House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, called the attack in the letter “groundless and irresponsible.” Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Coal Creek Canyon, said that by airing his complaints in written form rather than discussing them in the executive session, May was abdicating his responsibility.

McElhany suggested the ethics committee should be set up with an equal number of Republicans and Democrats on it. He conceded, though, that this was not the time to make such changes.

May said outside the hearing that he had learned of Lambert’s complaint before it was filed and did nothing to encourage or discourage it. He doubts legislators from either party are capable of deciding complaints on the truthfulness of lobbying terms in a nonpartisan way.