Gov. Polis’s office violated state law in awarding a former employee a $14,000 monthly consultant gig in a no-bid contract the day after his temporary job ended.
That’s according to the Ethics Commission based on a law championed by Polis that state employees be separated from their jobs for six months before cashing in on lucrative contracts that must be awarded through competitive bidding.
Rick Palacio only worked in the governor’s office for four months filling in for the chief of staff who was on maternity leave.
Polis’s office says his work from August through November was “vital to saving lives and navigating unprecedented challenges” as the timing coincided with COVID and a Western Slope fire that burned a large expanse through a remote area destroying one outbuilding.
It’s unknown what, if any of Polis’s COVID policies that isolated Coloradans, destroyed businesses or the education of our youth Palacio shared in the blame.
The total cost of that contract was $85,000. Plus, Palacio had another $70,000 contract for five months that overlapped his temp work as Polis’s chief of staff.
Irony alert: The ethics amendment was Jared Polis’ baby. Hoisted by your own petard. #copolitics https://t.co/ZlJ6R1p9Mj
— Lynn Bartels (@lynn_bartels) December 12, 2024
It’s unclear what services Palacio provided as a consultant. Political, perhaps.
This wasn’t Palacio’s first gig in support of the governor.
Following Palacio’s stint leading the state’s Democrat Party, his companies Palacio Strategies and Majority Institute earned nearly $328,000 working for a Super PAC that was supporting Polis’s first run for governor.
Neither Palacio nor Polis’s office will suffer any kind of fine or punishment for breaking the law.
From Colorado Politics:
As for penalties, the commission can assess fines when there is a breach of public trust for private gain. But the commission said the complainant, former 18th Judicial District Attorney and incoming 23rd Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler did not submit any evidence that Palacio had breached the public trust.
And yet the basic facts of how Polis’s office broke the law serves as the very evidence that both had breached the public trust.
And that ruling by the Ethics Commission also threatens to breach the public’s trust in them.