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Hi {first_name},
Last week Garrison Ortiz put on a little political theater, claiming to support a new code of ethics in Pueblo County. Meanwhile, he didn't even declare a conflict of interest when he signed a County contract sending $50,000 to the person working for his campaign and making his re-election commercials.
Under the ethics code, Garrison Ortiz is supposed to recuse himself from such activity. Not only, did he NOT recuse himself from the contract, he pushed for the County paying his personal re-election campaign staff.
Here’s the text of the Ethics Complaint 20-007 under consideration by the IEC:
Colorado Independent Ethics Commission Complaint 20-007 RE: Pueblo County Commission Garrison Ortiz Culture of Corruption & Intimidation
Pueblo County Commissioner Garrison Ortiz has fostered a culture of corruption during his time in office. Several potential ethical violations have been reported to the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission in regard to Garrison Ortiz’s tenure as a Pueblo County Commissioner. The charges include:
Violation #1 Failure to Disclose or Recuse himself from voting on or influencing a County contract where Garrison Ortiz had a clear Conflict of Interest Pueblo County Commissioner Garrison Ortiz failed to disclose a conflict of interest while directing a $50,000 no-bid County contract be awarded to people who work on his political campaign. According to a Colorado Open Records Act request (CORA), Garrison Ortiz advocated for Pueblo County paying the public relations firm, EasySocial $50,000 during a time they were also providing campaign work on behalf of Garrison Ortiz’s re-election campaign. Commissioner Ortiz frequently advocated for paying EasySocial just days after they provided campaign strategy work for him according to the CORA request.
For example, according to the CORA request, on September 5th, 2019 EasySocial’s owner, Tim Zurcher participated in a Garrison Ortiz campaign strategy session at Garrison Ortiz’s house in Rye. Then just four days later, on September 9th Garrison Ortiz sent an email to the Pueblo County Public Information Officer, Adam Uhernik, stating that he supports paying EasySocial $50,000 from the County, “I will need to get support from the other two Commissioners once (EasySocial) finishes putting the final proposal together.” (See Addendum 1; CORA Request)
Similarly, according to the CORA request, in an email exchange on January 6th Commissioner Ortiz’s personal assistant asked EasySocial’s Zurcher to attend a meeting as a representative of Garrison Ortiz. Zurcher replied, “Though I do not remember that conversation at all I can make that time and location work! Was he hoping for me to attend in the role of a Pueblo Proud rep?” EasySocial seemingly is providing so much work simultaneously for both Garrison Ortiz’s personal re-election campaign while being paid by the County, that he needed clarification which hat he was wearing in that particular capacity. On the very next day, on January 7th, 2020 during work hours at her position for the County, the exact same personal assistant emailed Tim Zurcher saying that Garrison Ortiz requested that Zurcher email campaign photos that EasySocial took back in August, 2019.
Furthermore, on May 5th, 2020 Garrison Ortiz prodded County staff to pay EasySocial’s invoice promptly during a County work session. Garrison Ortiz’s County-paid personal assistant followed up with an email to the County Finance office, “I need to make sure (EasySocial’s contract) was approved to pay.” Within days of receiving payment from the County, Zurcher informed Garrison Ortiz that the EasySocial team had selected Garrison Ortiz to be profiled in the May, 2020’s “Pueblo Shares” video. EasySocial wrote Garrison Ortiz that EasySocial will “feature you as one of the key leaders of our community” just after they received payment for their County contract after his nudging from the County.
Garrison Ortiz never disclosed a conflict of interest when he voted on Resolution 20-024 approving the $50,000 for the no-bid Pueblo Shares Contract. Garrison Ortiz also then signed a City-County-Chamber Joint Marketing Agreement on January, 21st, 2020, that specifically identified EasySocial as the recipient of the no-bid contact at a time when EasySocial was making commercials for Ortiz’s re-election campaign. According to the CORA request, EasySocial had been working for Ortiz’s campaign since at least July 12, 2019 (a full six months prior to Garrison Ortiz signed their $50,000 no-bid contract with the County).
Garrison Ortiz clearly violated the County Ethics Code, which he personally signed and agreed to uphold, regarding EasySocial. The Ethics Code reads, “Upon discovery of an actual or potential conflict of interest, an elected official or employee shall promptly file a written statement of disqualification and shall withdraw from further participation in the transaction involved.” While the language is clear that Garrison Ortiz should have recused himself, he did not recuse himself. In fact he took three acts in violation of the code: 1) He actively pushed for EasySocial to receive the contract in question from the County; 2) he signed the contract directing the County money be directed to his EasySocial; and 3) he voted on the County contract directing the money to EasySocial.
Violation #2 Receiving Illegal Campaign Contributions. EasySocial has been working on Garrison Ortiz’s campaign since at least July 12th, 2019 according to the CORA request. Furthermore, EasySocial produced professionally made campaign videos from Garrison Ortiz’s campaign announcement on August 15th, 2019. However, the Garrison Ortiz for Pueblo County campaign committee did not report any expenditures or in-kind gifts from EasySocial or their owner Tim Zurcher in their official campaign finance report with the Colorado Secretary of State. The most recent campaign report covered the period of October 28th, 2018 – October 28th, 2019, which included Ortiz’s announcement on August 15th, 2019, filmed by EasySocial. (See Addendum 2; Secretary of State Report).
Furthermore, since EasySocial’s normal rates are $50,000 to provide marketing work for Pueblo County, we should expect similar billing rates to the Garrison Ortiz for Pueblo Committee. That type of cost would eat up all of Ortiz’s campaign budget. Currently, their billing rates appear to be $0 based on Commissioner Ortiz’s report with the Secretary of State.
Furthermore, EasySocial's owner, Tim Zurcher is named by Facebook as the "Confirmed Page Owner" of Garrison Ortiz's For Commissioner Facebook page. According to Facebook, which publicly discloses data on political spending, Zurcher has already spent over $700 on Facebook ads for Ortiz, mostly to boost posts that attack his primary opponent, Abel Tapia. None of those expenditures have been reported to the Secretary of State. Had Garrison Ortiz been properly reporting the extensive work being provided by EasySocial for his campaign, others in the community could have been aware of Garrison Ortiz’s conflict of interest when he advocated for paying them $50,000 from the County budget.
Violation #3 Demanding that staff falsify engineering estimates in official County work product in order to make repairing the existing jail look too expensive According to a lawsuit naming Garrison Ortiz as a defendant, the former Facilities Director prepared an engineering estimate for remodeling the current Pueblo County jail. Commissioner Garrison Ortiz directed the Director to falsify jail remodeling estimates to make the cost of remodeling the existing jail appear $20 Million more expensive. This was because Garrison Ortiz did not support remodeling the jail and preferred that a new jail be constructed. Under Colorado revised statutes, it is unlawful for elected officials to pressure government employees to intentionally falsify work product.
Violation #4 Intimidation and threats against County Employees According to a lawsuit naming Garrison Ortiz as a defendant, two separate County Directors have indicated that Garrison Ortiz requested that they declare their loyalty to them; and one was instructed to spy on fellow Commissioners. These two Directors were subsequently targeted by Garrison Ortiz for termination after they refused. According to the lawsuit, “In October 2017, Commissioner Ortiz approached [the employee] and demanded that [the employee] give him his “undying loyalty” and spy on Commissioners Pace and Hart. Commissioner Ortiz told [the employee] that his career with Pueblo County “depended” on acceding to the demand for loyalty and serving as Commissioner Ortiz’s spy.”
Violation #5 Failure to disclose a conflict of interest regarding County plumbing contracts Commissioner Garrison Ortiz never disclosed conflicts of interest as he voted to send over $200,000 of County money to Flo Right Plumbing that employs his family member as well as a member of his 2016 campaign committee. (Resos 17-302, 18-105, 20-111, 20-117) (Resolution 20-111 was no-bid.).
Violation #6 Changing the results of a competitive bid to award a County jail diversion contract to a losing bidder which employed personal associates of Garrison Ortiz In 2018 Commissioner Garrison Ortiz unilaterally changed the outcome of a competitive contract so that the losing bidder would manage an expensive jail diversion program. Commissioner Garrison Ortiz alone changed the contract language to award the $575,000/year contract to Crossroads for the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) grant. An independent contract review committee scored Health Solutions as the top scoring applicant. Garrison Ortiz never disclosed a personal relationship with Crossroads. According to CORA requests, the manager of the LEAD grant program is a gym workout partner of Commissioner Ortiz. Garrison Ortiz should have disclosed the conflict and recused himself from participating in awarding the contract. The program has diverted just a few dozen offenders in the three years it has been in existence. If the program were managed successfully and as promised, it would be reducing jail populations, hence making a new jail unnecessary.
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