April 26, 2013 08:55 AM UTC

Fact: Gessler Used State Funds To Attend GOP Events

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Colorado Ethics Watch updates us on the question of a previous Secretary of State who took the entire $5,000 discretionary account balance in the form of a check:

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As reported in yesterday's Denver Post, the result of an independent investigation into Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler's alleged use of state funds to travel to partisan Republican events last year–including the Republican National Lawyers Association conference, immediately followed by the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida:

A plane ticket and $1,278.90 in expenses for the RNLA meeting were paid for with state funds. Gessler also attended the Republican National Convention while in Florida, but used campaign funds for expenses other than the plane ticket.

The report released Wednesday is a finding of fact, not a determination whether Gessler's actions were unethical.

Here are some details in the report from Heartland Investigative Group:

The investigation revealed that Secretary Gessler did attend and was a speaker at the Republican National Lawyers Association National Election Seminar in Sarasota, Florida on August 24th to 25th. The plane ticket and his expenses were paid out of the discretionary fund allotted annually to the Secretary of State in the amount of $5,000.00. The total amount paid out of the discretionary fund for his attendance at the Republican National Lawyers Association meeting was $1278.90. The plane ticket was $498.78…

It appears that Secretary Gessler did attend the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, and his expenses were paid from his campaign funds, with the exception of his plane ticket. The cost of his plane ticket to Tampa does not appear to have been prorated between the Republican National Lawyers Association meeting and his attendance at the Republican National Convention. This ticket was paid for entirely from the discretionary fund.

Like we said, this investigative report on behalf of the Independent Ethics Commission does not rule on the legality (or morality) of its findings–that's for the IEC and the court of public opinion to decide. What the report does confirm are facts not really disputed: that Gessler did attend the Republican National Lawyers Association conference using state funds, and that he did use campaign funds to attend the Republican National Convention, with the exception of the plane ticket, the cost of which wasn't pro-rated between the two events.

Of course, if you don't think the RNLA conference was an appropriate use of state funds to begin with, pro-rating expenses between it and the obviously political RNC doesn't really matter. As the investigator reported:

I requested further information from the RNLA and received a response indicating that Secretary Gessler was not a member of the RNLA at the time he spoke at the RNLA National Election Seminar in August of 2012. Secretary Gessler was formally a member of RNLA up until 2006. The response states that the RNLA seminars are generally open to all attorneys regardless of party affiliation… [Pols emphasis]

Try not to giggle, folks. They apparently said it with a straight face–we'll see what the IEC thinks. 

There are a few things, to be fair, working in Gessler's favor from this report: it does appear that his staff unanimously considered threats against him to be legitimate–and worthy of using state funds to fly him home early from the RNC. That particular decision, and the use of discretionary funds to pay for his home security system after these threats, appear to be justified. It's also worth noting that the worst alleged malfeasance regarding the discretionary account, a check for some $1,400 emptying the entire balance with no documentation of expenses, falls outside the IEC's one-year statute of limitations.

And that brings us one last interesting, and by that we mean really tantalizing item in this report:

[I]t appears the discretionary fund allotted to certain state officials and in this particular case, the Colorado Secretary of State's Office, has been used for various purposes by former Secretaries of State. Those uses include, but are not limited to, cocktail receptions for county clerks, personal clothing, overseas travel, etc. There appears to have been no real accounting of these funds and there is not a history of receipts being submitted for expenses incurred and charged against the discretionary fund. One Secretary of State allegedly took the entire $5,000 as W-2 income [Pols emphasis] while other Secretaries of State have expensed their items.

Folks, do you want to know which Secretary of State wrote a $5,000 check to his or herself out of their discretionary account? Because we surer than hell do! That too would fall outside the IEC's statute of limitations–but the identity of that Secretary of State could nonetheless be rather illuminating. Whoever it was–yes, even if it was Bernie Buescher, the only Democratic Secretary of State since 1963–all the details of that incident should be part of any debate on a solution to the lack of oversight of these funds.

Because if this report demonstrates anything, it's that public officials like Gessler need more oversight.