If Stacie Gilmore wins a runoff election next month for the Denver City Council seat representing the city’s far-northeast area, she will face a situation that’s unique in scope — and potentially troubling, critics say.
The District 11 candidate, who is running against Sean Bradley, is married to an appointed official in Mayor Michael Hancock’s administration. Scott Gilmore has been the Department of Parks and Recreation’s deputy director overseeing parks and planning since late 2011.
That means Stacie Gilmore probably would face the question of whether to vote on ordinances that her husband helped draft or measures that might affect his compensation.
A complicating factor is that while her husband has worked for Parks and Rec, Gilmore has been executive director of a Montbello nonprofit, called Environmental Learning for Kids, that the couple founded 19 years ago. Since 1999, it has received city contracts worth more than $500,000 for youth education and employment programs, city records show.
The Gilmores also have been close to Hancock, who represented the area on the council before he was elected mayor. He has been neutral on the race, but Hancock’s wife has endorsed Stacie Gilmore. (The campaign had listed Hancock’s mother on its endorsements page, but on Thursday it removed her name at her request.)
Other candidates in the city’s four June 2 council runoffs, including Bradley, also bring potential ethical concerns they’d have to weigh in votes. But experts say Gilmore, given her husband’s high position, probably would face a tougher balancing act.
They also point to differences between narrow city ethics rules, which focus on barring direct action that financially could benefit an official’s family, business associates or employer, and wider questions of public perception. The rules allow all council members to vote on the city budget, regardless of conflicts.
Some see the rules as weak, and the Board of Ethics has been discussing potential changes to propose to the council.
“Even the appearance of impropriety can damage the public’s trust, so (the Gilmores) should take the appropriate steps to avoid that appearance,” said Katie Dahl, associate director of the good-government group Colorado Common Cause.
It’s a challenge Gilmore has acknowledged, during candidate forums before the May 5 election and in an interview this week.
Gilmore says that if elected, she will seek guidance from the Denver Board of Ethics and resign from the nonprofit.
“I’m a super rule-follower,” she said. “I think it’s clear to me how to proceed on how to not put anybody in a sensitive position. If I have a question, I will lean on the Board of Ethics.”
During a District 11 candidate forum, Gilmore said she probably wouldn’t need to abstain from voting on all parks matters because her husband “doesn’t deal with everything to do with Denver Parks and Rec.”
In last week’s first-round election, Gilmore led District 11’s five-candidate field, drawing 38 percent to Bradley’s 24 percent. Ballots for the runoff go out Friday.
Bradley, who is among critics of Gilmore’s potential conflicts, also could face questions about impartiality since his business involves advising airport contractors on minority participation. He’s also the new president and CEO of the Urban League of Metro Denver, which has received recent city contracts.
The conflict-of-interest issue could figure into a Denver Decides debate between Gilmore and Bradley at 7 p.m. Thursday on Channel 8.
Gilmore and her husband have navigated similar ethical terrain before.
Three years ago, Scott Gilmore, who makes a city salary of $108,318, and Parks and Rec executive director Lauri Dannemiller sought an advisory opinion from the ethics board on how to handle interactions with his wife’s nonprofit. Its members advised the department to keep him out of any discussions or direct decision-making involving Environmental Learning for Kids.
Stacie Gilmore and parks spokesman Jeff Green say the department has followed that guidance, although not without criticism, putting Dannemiller in charge of those decisions. And Stacie Gilmore says her husband now has no formal role in the nonprofit, beyond volunteering.
The most recent decision was wrapped up in November, just two weeks before Gilmore filed her initial candidacy papers. The council approved a long-in-the-works deal in which Environmental Learning for Kids, other partners and the city raised $1.1 million to purchase 5.5 acres of open space in Montbello.
Gilmore’s group now is leasing most of that land from the city and is raising money for projects there that include an education center.
She said she wanted to finish the land deal before running for office.
Ethical questions quickly entered the race. In early March, Montbello neighborhood activist Bernadette Ukolowicz contacted the ethics board, asking its members to weigh in on Gilmore’s potential conflict of interest, but the board declined to do so during the campaign.
Ukolowicz this week said Gilmore’s independence was a concern, along with her ability to go to bat for neighborhoods. She cited an example from last summer in which repeated complaints to the parks department about landscaping problems at Parkfield Lake Park went unheeded.
“We had to go to the councilman,” recalled Ukolowicz, referring to Councilman Chris Herndon, who no longer will represent the area because of redistricting.
“I’m terrified,” she added, that Gilmore “is not going to really want to get after (her husband) to clean up” areas that have been neglected.
If Gilmore wins, mayoral spokeswoman Amber Miller said, Hancock would expect all appointees, including Scott Gilmore, “to operate ethically at all times, and in this case we will ensure the operations at Parks and Rec adhere to that high standard.”
Jon Murray: 303-954-1405, jmurray@denverpost.com or twitter.com/JonMurray
