Commissioner feathered nest of future employer

Jeffco Commissioner Kevin McCasky proposed an increase of $20,000 in the county’s contribution to the Jefferson Economic Council last year while he was a candidate for the private economic development organization’s top job, the Columbine Courier has learned.

McCasky’s application for the high-paying JEC position was under consideration in November when the county’s 2011 budget was revised to increase JEC funding from $380,000 to $400,000 — as McCasky urged his fellow commissioners to boost Jeffco’s contribution while the county itself was facing significant budget cuts.

McCasky, who was named in January to succeed Preston Gibson after Gibson resigned as JEC president last year, says he sees no conflict of interest in his actions. The commissioner, leaving office this week to begin his job at the JEC, says funding the economic council has been a consistent practice in each year of his tenure as a commissioner.

“It is clearly a conflict of interest when a person in government rolls a vote on a budget for an organization for (which) he is seeking employment,” said Colorado Common Cause executive director Jenny Flanagan. Despite any history of previous advocacy for the organization’s budget, an interest in employment with the organization is problematic, she said.

“That’s all fine up until he participates in the application for employment,” Flanagan said.

However, McCasky steadfastly defends advocating for the funding increase, and also said he met recently with the county budget director to advise her of his intent to seek additional county funds for the JEC in 2012.

“I’ve been involved in seven budget cycles, and in every single one of them I’ve advocated to my colleagues to increase (the JEC’s funding),” he said. “I have a pattern of activity, and a record of doing that.”

Formal authorization for the additional funding was made when Jeffco’s three commissioners voted unanimously to approve the county’s 2011 budget.

“When you have a personal interest in the outcome of a certain line item, you have to recuse yourself from that particular vote,” Flanagan said.

The JEC — which typically receives the majority of its funding from Jeffco’s general fund and gets more than twice as many dollars from Jeffco as any other organization — submits a proposed budget annually to the county. The proposed budget for 2011 was $380,000.

Former county commissioner Kathy Hartman, who was defeated by Don Rosier in the November election, said the JEC approached the commissioners about a funding increase but confirmed that McCasky actively lobbied her and Commissioner Faye Griffin for the boost.

“I think he formally suggested it,” Hartman said of McCasky’s advocacy for the additional funds during a Nov. 4 budget development meeting. “But I was approached by the JEC chairman about it.”

Even with the county facing $30 million in budget cuts, increasing the funding for the JEC was an effort to boost the county’s economic vitality, Hartman said.

Hartman, who also served as a JEC board member, said there was no connection between McCasky’s hiring and the county’s increased contribution to the JEC. But she did concede that McCasky’s interest in the JEC job was common knowledge at the time.

“It wasn’t a private deal of Commissioner McCasky’s,” she said. “The two were not connected. I was not a part of the committee that did a search for the new director. … There was nothing that Commissioner McCasky snuck in.”

JEC board member Jane Barnes, who also serves on the Jeffco Board of Education, said McCasky’s hiring was not a “done deal.” A consulting group was hired to pare down the long list of applicants, she said, before finalists for the JEC job were selected by a search committee.

JEC board chairman Mike Partheymuller said the organization received about 60 applications for the top position. Coincidentally, Partheymuller is vice president of Carma Colorado, whose upscale Solterra Development is part of a metropolitan district for which the Jeffco commissioners recently approved a 10-year reprieve on a $6 million loan. That loan was used to help build the C-470 and Alameda interchange.

McCasky, who has earned $87,300 annually as a commissioner, said he could not disclose his JEC salary. Gibson’s compensation was listed on the nonprofit’s tax documents as $126,500 in 2009 and more than $125,000 in 2008.

“The board of directors have advised me that matters of my employment are not to be released,” McCasky said.

The JEC is not subject to Colorado’s open-records law, acting president Michelle Claymore said. A response to a records request seeking McCasky’s employment contract submitted last week to Claymore and the council’s attorney was not received by press time.

Regarding his recent meeting with the county’s budget director, Tina Caputo, McCasky said he wanted to inform the department of his plans to seek additional funding once in his new position. McCasky said he plans to propose projects to be undertaken by the JEC, whose mission includes “enhancing economic vitality for the citizens of Jefferson County.”

In his new position, McCasky said he plans to advocate on behalf of the JEC and development with gusto.

“The expectations by the board of directors … are to raise the presence and profile of the Jefferson Economic Council,” he said. “That means I’m out singing praises of the council, the county and our investors.”

Contact Emile Hallez Williams at emile@evergreenco.com or 303-933-2233, ext. 22. For updates, check www.ColumbineCourier.com.