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July 17, 2014 01:21 PM UTC

Steve King Running Out of Timecards to Punch

  • 43 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
State Sen. Steve King (R), man of many time cards.
State Sen. Steve King (R), man of many time cards.

Republican State Sen. Steve King officially withdrew from the race for Mesa County Sheriff on Tuesday, a decision that had become largely unavoidable and may end up being just the beginning of a larger investigation. As the Denver Post reports, King has yet to explain how he was able to juggle three different government jobs at the same time:

The investigation now includes timecards for his work as acting coordinator of campus security and training at Colorado Mesa University from July 2012 to December 2013.

Timecards show King worked as many as 194 hours a month at the university while also working as a Republican state senator and working part-time at the sheriff's office. He had been an investigator for the sheriff's office before he was elected to political office as a representative for District 54 in 2006 and then as a senator for District 7 in 2010.

While those of you outside of the Grand Junction area may not be particularly interested in who becomes the next Mesa County Sheriff, King's sloppy shenanigans may yet ensnare more public officials. For years officials at Colorado Mesa University (formerly Mesa State University) have been suspected of providing a safe landing spot — or a place to cool their heels until the next campaign — for Republicans such John Marshall, Bob Beauprez's campaign manager in 2006, as well as various family members and friends of former State Sen. Josh Penry.

It's telling that the editorial board of the Grand Junction Sentinel didn't mince words in saying good riddance to King:

That’s not even taking into account an ongoing criminal investigation by a special prosecutor. The 18th Judicial District Attorney’s office is looking at whether King committed any crimes while he was employed by three different publicly funded entities: the state Legislature, the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office and Colorado Mesa University. The Sentinel’s examination of King’s timecards and claims for reimbursement paints a troubling picture, to say the least…

…With the criminal investigation hanging over his head, it’s doubtful King will ever hold another government job. But that’s the least of his worries. We’re just glad he’s dropped his bid to be our next sheriff.

We've no doubt that King's time-card shuffle was making a lot of Republicans nervous as it drew more attention to the practice of hiring so many "at-will" positions at Colorado Mesa University. King's withdrawal from the sheriff's race may end this particular line of questioning, but his candidacy in general may have opened a few doors that were intended to remain closed.

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43 thoughts on “Steve King Running Out of Timecards to Punch”

  1. Another big problem for King is that he didn't bother to disclose the CMU job on his PFD reports. Or to tell CMU that he was working for the Sheriff's Office.  I guess that's two more problems, huh?

  2. What about serving on the legislature's audit committee while allegedly employed by CMU, which, the last I checked, was a state entity.

    Not that the lege will do anything but I'd like to be pleasantly surprised.

    Another problem, of lesser interest outside Mesa County unless the proceedings get moved to another jurisdiction, is the possible retrial of Michael Blagg, convicted some 10 years ago of killing his wife. The trial judge granted a retrial because one of the jurors had lied on her jury questionnaire. King was the chief investigator on the case and much of the circumstancial evidence relied on his work and testimony. Now he had a Brady letter hanging on him, and could very well have much bigger problems pending the outcome of the current investigations.

     

     

  4. King skated around his lack of ethics and illegal use of funds (and time cards)  once too often.  He failed to understand even the best of skaters will, at some point, fall on their ass!  Shame it took so long.

      1. I'm not confusing shit. Wasn't King the Senate sponsor of HB14-1304 to make the Palisade Peach the State Fruit?  And didn't the bill get PI'd after a last-minute run by Rocky Ford cantaloupe fanboys?

  7. King is Gone But Whose Minding the Store at Colorado Mesa University

    King has resigned the nominaiton for Mesa County sheriff but shouldn't someone ask who was minding the store at Colorado Mesa Univeristy. King billed the univeristy for 194 hours during one month he was attending the legislative session in Denver, plus he was moonlighting at the sheriff's office. Even putting aside his time at the sheriff's office, how could the front office of CMU sign his time cards with a straight face. Someone, either the investigators or the press need to ask those in charge at CMU about KIing and his relationship and time spent at CMU. It doesn't make sense that anyone at CMU who would be looking out for the taxpayers would ever have approved King's time cards. There are a lot of unanswered questions about CMU's behavior and involvement in all of this.

            1. Ha! Animal husbandry!

              So, right, the Beauprez-Rowland ticket in 2006, Janet Rowland equating homosexuality with bestiality, both being '"alternative lifestyles."

              Beauprez's campaign manager John Marshall called those who objected to her statements "bed-wetting, pampered liberals," shortly before becoming a VP at Mesa, where he oversees student diversity and advocacy. That's rich.

              But back to Janet. The CMU website no longer lists her as having a position with the Center for Local Government, but from "News" on the CMU Center's website:

              "Rowland is the research coordinator for the group, working on contract for the university. The effort is funded by grants, sponsorships and user fees" (May 29, 2013).

              Yes, indeedy. "On contract."

              Side note: Janet Rowland, Jane North (see Penry, $476,000, campaign debt, campaign debt forgiveness, honeymoon, Mexico), and Tim Foster have endorsed Mike Kopp in the current race for governor.

              Side note #2: You can change the website, but you can't have my old screenshots.

               

               

  8. Agree wholeheartedly with Duke.

    I hope folks don't end up thinking that Steve King applied for an open position at Colorado Mesa, was chosen by a search committee, and then failed to disclose his employment with the Sheriff's Office.

    Tim Foster regularly appoints cronies and fellow travelers to jobs at CMU by designating them as "Acting" … like "Acting Executive Director of Marketing" and "Acting Head Football Coach" and "Acting Professional Staff Assistant to the President" … like that. It's how he bypasses the rules and laws — CMU's own manual, State and Federal law — that govern hiring. Foster goes all feudal lord and master with the "acting" designation.

    The takeaway: Acting means appointed. Appointed means by Tim. If it's a job, Human Resources is complicit. If it's a no-show job, the supervisor is complicit. And in the case of Steve King, that person would be John "Both Ways Bob" Marshall, who calls himself a doctor these days.

    So a pox on all their "blah blah government is so wasteful blah blah" houses.

    I'm wondering if Steve King wasn't double-dipping at CMU. Did he ever have a contract to provide a product or service? Did he ever teach a class? 'Cause I think that would be over and above any salary he drew …

     

    1. I agree with all your points OTL. Either the state government or the 18th Judicial District needs to include an investigaiton of the front office at Colorado Mesa University. These are some of the questions that should be asked:

      1. Who hired Mr. King at CMU?

      2. What were the terms of his hiring or agreement with CMU?

      3. He supposedly was a guest lecturer – for what? What classes did he teach and, if he did, how many times did he teach a class?

      4. He supposedly was hired to perform security for the campus, even though the Grand Junction Police Department provides on campus police and maintains a substation on campus. What security services wasn't the GJPD providing? Did Mr. King provide those missing services? What in the line of law enforcement did he actually do at CMU?

      5. If he was a guest lecturer, why wasn't his employment through one of the academic departments at CMU? Why didn't an academic department keep track of and sign off on his time cards? Why did John Marshall sign the time cards and did he check with an academic department or the GJPD to see if Mr. King was actually teaching or providing security? 

      Bottom line: There doesn't appear to be legitimate answers to many of these questions. If Mr. King wasn't actually working the hours he wrote on his itme cards, and its hard to believe the front office at CMU berlieved he was, why did the CMU administrators including the presidnet and a vice-presidnet tolerate Mr. King's behavior? What was their motivation in all of this?

      The taxpayers of Colorado are entitled to answers to these and other questions from the people who manage CMU. We foot the bill for this university along with the students and our money should not be wasted. There is an appearance of impropriety here that needs to be investigated and the conclusions reported to the public.

      1. Everything that the GJ Good Old Boy GOP politics touch seem to be mired in corruption, dipping into pubic funds, nepotism etc.  << The living example of Conservative Rule

        1. It bears repeating that Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.  One-party systems are virtually guaranteed to be corrupt due to the temptation and opportunity for abuse.

          2. There are enough public funds and public positions to abuse in Mesa County that it seems particularly attractive to the unethical.  But you are right, in such systems its all about who you know.  In GJ/Mesa its clear in the stank of patronage gigs sans any oversight, at CMU, at the Airport board, etc.; and in the scripted sucession any time anything opens in the hierarchy of 'elected' positions in the area.  We can look north and see it play out similarly in a smaller manner, and I still haven't heard what T Wright will have to do about this…

            '

            http://www.craigdailypress.com/news/2014/jun/25/tractor-stuck-swinging-bridge-browns-park/&nbsp;

      2. R36, do you know what entity college presidents are ultimately accountable to?

        The presidents can be awfully cozy with their Boards of Trustees, and SB 1093 made Mesa State independent. (Side note: The bill was sponsored by Gayle Berry, who worked for Tim Foster's father's, and Ron Teck, who was himself an "acting" something-or-other at Mesa State .)

        Doesn't look like the legislative audit committee owns a microscope, either.

        Is it the Colorado Department of Higher Education?

        Can we expect a DA to investigate large-scale public sector financial fraud?

        Heard Morgan Carroll might launch an ethics investigation, but surely that's limited to Senator King.

        Who ya gonna call?

        1. I don't know if the Department of Higher Education is set-up to investigate such matters but they could send a request to the Colorado Attorney General's office to look into this and specifically focus on Colorado Mesa University.

          The CMU Board of Trustees should ask questions and demand answers from CMU's president and vice-president. Based on the news articles and the available documents, it sure looks like Mr. King was hired by CMU's front office and all his time cards were submitted to the same office and approved. Its really difficult to believe, once again based on the news stories, that CMU's president and vice-president either believed Mr. King was working those hours or that they ever intended him to work all that much for the university. Mr. King isn't the only one who has some explaining to do. The front office at CMU does too.

          According to the Post's story, District Attorney Brauchler indicated his investigation will include the time cards Mr. King submitted to CMU. That's a good sign someone will get to the bottom of this but his investigation focuses on Mr. King. Someone needs to investigate CMU in order to insure that Colorado taxpayers aren't paying someone for virtually no work and for the wrong motivations.

        2. Not the "Ghostbusters!"

          I don't know if the Department of Higher Education is set-up to investigate such matters but they could send a request to the Colorado Attorney General's office to look into this and specifically focus on Colorado Mesa University.

          The CMU Board of Trustees should ask questions and demand answers from CMU's president and vice-president. Based on the news articles and the available documents, it sure looks like Mr. King was hired by CMU's front office and all his time cards were submitted to the same office and approved. Its really difficult to believe, once again based on the news stories, that CMU's president and vice-president either believed Mr. King was working those hours or that they ever intended him to work all that much for the university. Mr. King isn't the only one who has some explaining to do. The front office at CMU does too.

          According to the Post's story, District Attorney Brauchler indicated his investigation will include the time cards Mr. King submitted to CMU. That's a good sign someone will get to the bottom of this but his investigation focuses on Mr. King. Someone needs to investigate CMU in order to insure that Colorado taxpayers aren't paying someone for virtually no work and for the wrong motivations.

        3. The news media needs to look into CMU too. Perhaps one of the investigative reporters from channels 4, 7, 9 or Fox31 could launch an investigation. This is more than a local Grand Junction story. Young men and women from all over Colorado attend CMU. The entire state has a direct interest in insuring our public colleges and universities are properly run by the people in-charge at each campus.

  10. Answered

    The tractor, owned by rancher and former Moffat County Commissioner T. Wright Dickinson, fell partway through the bridge while crossing. While Dickinson didn’t know the exact weight of the equipment, he admitted it was significantly heavier than the 3-ton capacity the bridge could handle.

    Hopefully Mr. Dickenson–whom he himself was quick to note is also inconvenienced by his bad employee that he wants you to also and especially know is absolutely and completely at fault–won't have to pay anything himself, if some sort of public safety net can be raided.  

    “I had a new employee, and this was just a simple honest mistake,” Dickinson said.

     

    Linda DeRose, Moffat County Road and Bridge Department manager, said the state bridge inspector will begin evaluating the full extent of the damage to the structure Tuesday.

     

    Until that evaluation comes through, DeRose said they won’t know what the cost of repair will be and if the county’s insurance will cover it.

     

     

    …at this point, the bridge will be closed indefinitely.

  12. And if this isn't enough, just wait until they push through the gambling/racing they tried to get a couple of years ago. Now they are going to the ballot this fall to do it on a state wide vote. If it passes the local people will NOT get a chance to say no to it.

    When it gets started take note of who gets the cushy jobs, will it be kind of like CMU, another retirement gig for the politicians and their buddies?  

    Just another example of your vote being stolen from you. The inner circle of the GOP runs this valley.

     

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