Englewood city staff use taxpayer dollars for yard signs promoting $41.5 million parks bond in Colorado

The City of Englewood is finding itself in the middle of possible campaign violations after the city used taxpayer dollars to pay for yard signs promoting a ballot measure to fund parks. Now, residents are being asked to return the yard signs that say, "Yes to Parks and Recreation - Support Englewood's Parks and Recreation Bond." 

If the signs are not returned, the city asks those residents to pay for the cost of the signs.

Englewood's city manager called it an "honest mistake," but there is still concern that city staff came too close to breaking the law when it paid for the signs encouraging voters to vote yes on the city's $41.5 million parks bond.

During a city council meeting earlier this week and after the city manager's presentation looking into this, Englewood City Council members voiced their concerns.

"It is very serious," said Englewood City Councilwoman Kim Wright.

"That is a huge trust issue... And I think this is a very grave situation," said Englewood City Councilwoman Rita Russell. "I do believe it's a violation of FCPA."

Englewood City Manager Shawn Lewis gave the presentation to city council members on Monday, after he found out on Friday that city staff had purchased the 250 yard signs for $2,000 using city and tax-payer money.

"Within minutes, we had launched a full investigation of that, into the who, the what, and the why, and found out we are not in violation with the Fair Campaign Practices Act," said Lewis.

Lewis said the signs were created, paid for, and given to residents who had requested them, prior to the city council approving the ballot language.

He said the signs were ordered on July 1, and delivered to the resident who had requested them on July 19, which was all prior to the second reading of the city council agreeing to put the measure on the ballot. However, he did acknowledge it was an inappropriate use of funds.

"When we use taxpayer funds in order to essentially ask taxpayers to perform our funds, we think that's an inappropriate use," said Lewis.

Suzanne Taheri, former Deputy Secretary of State, says local governments can spend money on polling, printing signs or engaging with the community prior to a ballot measure being set. In this case, though, the signs are still seen around town being used to promote the measure.

"It does show the slippery slope, right? I think it was a violation of the law because after they passed the ballot issue, they started put the signs up," said Taheri.

Taheri added the signs do not have disclaimers on them or any markings about who paid for the signs, which she says is also required by state law.

Lewis acknowledged the FCPA does require funding sources to be listed on the signs when the language is advocating for or opposing a ballot measure. In this case, he said an issue committee had not been formed yet, and that the issue committee was formed just last week.

Overall, Taheri believes the actions by the city haven't been transparent regarding the measure.

"It's really something that I think puts the citizens and the fairness and transparency in peril because citizens don't know this is happening behind the scenes. They don't know where the money's coming from," said Taheri. "Ultimately, it's the government putting their thumb on the scale of what should be a neutral vote,"

Taheri said an exception for local governments, is they can put out information that has pros and cons to a ballot measure, but not "vote yes" or "vote no" statements.

Whether the city violated the law or not, Taheri added, "I don't think the government should be spending money at all. I don't think they should be spending it on the front end or the back end to talk about ballot issues."

Lewis said he is now taking full responsibility for what happened.

"I think it was an honest mistake, but when we look at the political implications, the public perception implications, and really spending money that could erode the trust of our community, we don't want to ever have that happen again," said Lewis.

Lewis is now looking to draft a new policy to provide additional training to staff, or anyone who is involved with a ballot measure -- a policy he said would be stricter than the campaign ethics policy the state requires.

"We acknowledge that this was not a good decision that was made to purchase these yard signs, and we're doing everything we can to make that right," said Lewis.

The city says they have sent their findings and any necessary documents to an outside source to get their opinion on the matter.