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Red-faced legislature tightens per-diem rules

Stengel controversy results in new policy for off-session pay

April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 7, 2006 at midnight

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New rule: State lawmakers no longer will be on the honor system when it comes to claiming pay for time worked on legislative matters in the off session.

They'll have to sign a time sheet like every other working-class slug under a new system put in place by Senate and House leadership.

The changes in how lawmakers account for off-session pay comes months after Rep. Joe Stengel, R-Littleton, came under fire after the Rocky Mountain News reported he claimed pay in 2005 while vacationing in Hawaii and taking the Colorado bar exam.

"When the Stengel thing happened . . . we agreed it would make more sense to have some form of a paper trail," House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, said Tuesday.

"The new form asks (lawmakers) to tell us if you're working at the Capitol and if not. And (if) you're working somewhere else on legislative matters, tell us what you were doing," he said.

Stengel, who could not be reached for comment, resigned as House minority leader after coming under scrutiny for billing taxpayers for 240 out of 247 off-session days in 2005. He repaid $891 of questionable pay.

State law allows lawmakers who are in leadership positions to collect $99 a day in the off session when handling legislative matters, but the rule contains no other specifics.

The House Ethics Committee dismissed the complaint against Stengel but admonished him for "discrediting the reputation" of the legislature with his "excessive billing for work in the off session."

The committee also recommended that the legislature tighten per- diem rules.

House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, said he welcomes the changes.

But May noted that he and many other lawmakers weren't even aware pay was available.

"Honestly, I didn't know about leadership pay until the whole thing broke," he said referring to the Stengel controversy.

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