Council votes to issue three formal ethics charges against Collins

Colorado Springs City Council voted 8 to 0 Tuesday to bring ethics charges against Councilwoman Helen Collins.

Collins was recused from the vote.

City council must notify Collins of the charges within five days, and she will have 10 days to respond. If she responds by requesting an evidentiary hearing, City Council will schedule one, which will be open to the public.

An Independent Ethics Commission recommended that Collins be censured if city council finds that a violation occurred.

A complaint filed against Collins alleges that she participated in a real estate deal with TABOR author Douglas Bruce that helped him avoid paying a court judgment to the city. Collins has said that the complaint has no merit.

The city says that on May 29, it received an Independent Ethics Commission recommendation which it discussed in closed executive session on the morning of June 8. Council received legal advice and consulted with an attorney during the session.

According to the report, the Ethics Commission found that Collins violated city code by creating government waste. It says Collins was aware that the city was trying to collect money from Bruce and that her involvement in the transaction was an attempt to circumvent the city’s efforts, thereby forcing the city to expend additional resources trying to collect the debt.

The report says Collins may have violated state law by agreeing to take ownership of the property knowing that the purpose of the sale was to stop the city from collecting a debt.

The Ethics Commission report also accuses Collins of corruption. The report finds that witnesses heard Bruce tell Collins that she was in debt to him for helping her get elected to city council, and that Collins agreed to the transaction at least in part because of political favors.

The commission also found that Collins violated the following two sections of the code:

no covered person shall engage in any actions that may create, or do create, the appearance that they are violating the law or ethical standards.
no covered person shall engage in any activity that may create, or does create, the appearance of impropriety.

The report concludes by saying “The Commission finds that Collins violated Code 1.3.106(G), (H), and (I). Collins participated in a real estate transaction, the intent of which was to prevent the City from collecting Judgment #1, resulting in the City being unable to collect Judgment #2 at the closing, and did so because Seller had helped her get elected to office. Collins placed her friendship with Seller above her duty of loyalty to the city and her ethical obligations, resulting in harm to the City’s interests.”

Click the link under “related content” to read the ethics commission report.