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Plant accused of conflict of interest

Ex-GOP lawmaker says Dem got cash for his nonprofit

Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 3, 2006 at midnight

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A Democratic lawmaker who runs a nonprofit conservation agency was the driving force last year behind the creation of a state energy-grants program that later gave his agency money.

Rep. Tom Plant, D- Nederland, said that when he sponsored the amendment that put $125,000 into the state energy office, he had no idea his organization would be eligible for a grant because the application rules hadn't been written. The Center for ReSource Conservation in Boulder later received $25,000.

"I wasn't appropriating money for myself but for a policy," Plant said this week.

But a former Republican lawmaker, Rob Fairbank, of Littleton, says he believes Plant violated House rules by voting for a measure that benefitted his company.

Fairbank said Plant knew there was a good chance his energy conservation firm would be eligible for an energy conservation grant.

"It's a clear conflict of interest," said Fairbank, who runs a political consulting business.

Democrats counter that if Plant erred, other Republican lawmakers who have sponsored legislation that benefitted their interests are in the same boat.

They pointed to legislation Rep. Diane Hoppe, R-Sterling, carried in 2002 that created and funded a water foundation board of which she has been the sole president. The group received an initial state appropriation of $250,000 and $150,000 every year after that.

Hoppe said she did nothing wrong because she had no idea she would become president - a notion Democrats say is laughable, considering Hoppe's longtime interest in water issues.

Democrats also say Plant couldn't predict that his company would get a state grant.

The constant political finger-pointing and tit- for-tat in a session filled with charges of ethical breaches is too much for some lawmakers.

"At some point, enough is enough," said Rep. Josh Penry, R- Grand Junction.

Countered Fairbank: "I don't care if lawmakers are tired of this. If there's a conflict of interest, the public deserves to know."

Plant is the paid director of the Center for ReSource Conservation. The director receives a $55,000 annual salary, but Plant said he gets less when he's at the Capitol during the legislative session.

The center was one of 14 applicants for the grant money lawmakers awarded to the Governor's Office of Energy Management and Conservation.

Plant said that after he discovered that his nonprofit was eligible, he had qualms about whether he should have voted on the issue.

This session, he has recused himself on most energy bills, but he said that decision leaves him in a Catch 22.

"One of the things I ran on eight years ago was the importance of renewable energy and conservation," he said. "If I take myself out of this role, I'm abandoning my effectiveness as a legislator and as head of my nonprofit."

Other lawmakers, both Democrat and Republican, say they regularly face the same dilemma. The lawmakers have pointed out that as citizen legislators, they are going to introduce and vote for bills connected to their jobs or community interests.

Plant said he is considering asking leadership whether a committee reviewing ethics rules should examine policies governing conflicts of interest.

"It would be nice if we had some clarifying language," he said.

But Fairbank said the language is clear:

House Rule 21(c) says: "A member who has an immediate personal or financial interest in any bill . . . before the General Assembly shall disclose the fact to the House, and shall not vote upon such bill . . . ."

In addition, Fairbank questioned what he called a "smoking gun" e-mail that Plant sent in June to Drew Bolin, the new head of the state energy office.

Plant requested a lunch meeting to talk to Bolin about funding for the agency, the recently passed legislation that created the grants program and conservation projects his nonprofit agency was working on.

Fairbank said the e-mail shows that Plant was mixing his roles as nonprofit director, a member of the powerful Joint Budget Committee and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

Democrats counter that the -real "smoking gun" is that Fairbank, when providing information to the Rocky Mountain News about Plant's nonprofit, never mentioned his relationship with Bolin, the energy office director, or Bolin's relationship with Plant.

Fairbank worked for the state Republican Party when Bolin, in 1996, unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs.

Bolin, in 1998, ran for the state House - and lost to Plant.

Fairbank said he learned about Plant's vote after researching another Democrat, House Majority Leader Alice Madden, D-Boulder.

He was critical that Madden sponsored a bill this year that would appropriate $300,000 to a nonprofit energy agency where she serves on the board of directors.

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