June 08, 2012 09:38 PM UTC

Taxpayers Still Paying for Congrove's Mistakes

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• by: Colorado Pols

Despite the fact that former Jefferson County Commissioner Jim Congrove passed away earlier this year, his ethically questionable decisions and attendant legal missteps will continue to cost the county taxpayer dollars, as ordered by a recent decision of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Congrove, remember, was taken to court in 2005 by blogger Mike Zinna. In that lawsuit, Zinna alleged a gross violation of his First Amendment rights after the commissioner used county funds to hire a private investigator to tail the county critic. A jury eventually agreed with Zinna’s claims, awarding him a symbolic $1,791 in damages. U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch then ruled that the gadfly was entitled to $8,000 in reimbursement for lawyer’s fees.

As it turns out, the county’s tab for that particular lawsuit may run up even higher.

From the Denver Business Journal:

A federal appeals court says the amount of attorneys’ fees awarded to a blogger critical of Jefferson County government isn’t enough and is sending the case back to the lower court to increase that amount, The Denver Post reports.

It’s unlikely that Zinna will receive the $500,000 he’s requesting, but there’s no question that the county will be forced to spend more public money to finally end this particular legal skirmish. No matter how much the lower court decides Zinna deserves — and it’ll be considerably more than $8,000 — it will only add to the half a million dollars the county has already spent litigating this case.

While it’s ridiculous that taxpayers are continuing to foot the bill for the incredibly stupid decisions made by their erstwhile elected officials, it’s merely symptomatic of a larger problem with Jefferson County government. Congrove may be dead and buried, but his tenure as a commissioner is still hurting Jefferson County. Likewise, former Commissioner Kevin McCasky’s recent ethical violations continue to paint Jefferson County as a cesspool of corruption.

Bottom line, Jim Congrove was most certainly not the “good steward of taxpayer funds” that the legislature retroactively defined him as. In fact, just the opposite: Congrove and his cohorts left such an indellible black mark on Jeffco that it has taken — and will continue to take — years for the county to move beyond their years on the Commission.

Unfortunately, while the current Board of Commissioners hasn’t been mired in scandal (yet), history has a nasty habit of repeating itself in Jeffco.