April 18, 2008 04:56 PM UTC

Did Sen. Tapia change his story? Ethics decision today?

• 0 Comments
• by: chris82

I woke up today to two stories on Sen. Tapia regarding the Ethics Committee and its decision on his involvement with bills that gave money to the state fair, some of which was contracted out to his engineering firm. One story makes it sound like he’s in trouble the other says we may have a decision today and makes it sound like the decision will favor Tapia.

Senator changes his story (From 9News)

Sen. Abel Tapia (D-Pueblo) first told 9Wants to Know he was not directly involved as part of the state bid process that benefited his private company.

But Thursday afternoon, when he testified before the State Ethics Committee, he said he was incorrect. Tapia testified he did attend a meeting where his company was interviewed for a more than $100,000 state contract. Sen. Tapia’s company got the bid.

“I did go to one of the pre-bid meetings or one of the selection meetings. I don’t even recall it and it’s odd for me not to recall it,” Tapia testified Thursday.

I also thought this was funny. Is this really how it happened? They sure like tooting their own horn.

The Ethics Committee hearing was prompted by a 9Wants to Know investigation which disclosed the above facts. After questioning Sen. Tapia about the state contracts with his private company, 9Wants to Know talked with Sen. President Peter Groff (D-Denver), who asked Tapia to request an Ethics Committee investigation.

Tapia decision may be today (From The Denver Post)

A legislative ethics board could determine today whether state Sen. Abel Tapia erred in both funding and contracting with the State Fair.

The four-lawmaker advisory panel’s decision follows bipartisan praise for Tapia’s decade of ethical conduct at a previous meeting.

The lawmakers said at a hearing Thursday that Tapia’s contracts with the fair may appear improper but conflict-of-interest laws are not clear enough on how legislators can do business with the state.

The panel has not yet issued a formal opinion, though members from both parties expressed respect for Tapia, the second-ranking member of the Senate.

I’ve said before that we can’t expect the members of our citizen’s legislature to not be involved in bills that could possibly benefit the companies/organizations they work for as a day job and I stand by it. If their passionate enough to do it as a regular citizen and they have the means to run for office, their problem wanting to help their cause in the legislature as well. In the end, it’s the nature of their involvement. If they are throwing around their legislative weight to get contracts using government money, that’s a problem. If that’s not the case, I see no problem, especially since it sounds like the laws don’t really say what’s right or wrong anyway. With that said, Tapia’s involvement in a pre-bid meeting is a concern. I guess we should just wait for the Ethic’s Committee decision.