Ethics Board Dismisses Complaint Against Denver Mayor Michael Hancock Over Thanksgiving Travel During COVID
DENVER (CBS4) - An ethics complaint against Denver Mayor Michael Hancock has been dismissed. The complaint was filed after his out-of-town trip last Thanksgiving while he urged residents to "stay home."
The Denver Board of Ethics voted unanimously to throw out the complaint when they met on Wednesday. The board said they didn't condone what Hancock did and were troubled by the allegations, but that there was no code violation.
Earlier this month, Hancock admitted his travel was "a mistake" but not a violation of the city ethics code. Hancock submitted a letter to the ethics board comes after Denver resident Tonia Wilson filed an ethics complaint against the Mayor over his travel to another state during the 2020 holiday.
The mayor's trip to visit his daughter in Mississippi over Thanksgiving came at the same time he was publicly urging Denver residents not to travel.
"Stay home as much as you can", tweeted Hancock. "Avoid travel if you can."
He boarded a flight an hour later.
Wilson said the mayor's actions were unethical and showed him "abusing his office for his own benefit and for the benefit of his immediate family members."
Wilson told CBS4 she filed the ethics complaint "because so many Denver residents, including myself, were angered by the hypocrisy of our Mayor's actions."
In the letter, Hancock wrote: "I regret my decision to travel over the Thanksgiving holiday. It was a mistake for which I have taken responsibility and apologized to the people of Denver, and while it has been alleged that my conduct somehow violated Denver's Ethics Code, the complaint seems to rely on incorrect facts and/or assumptions."