‘Defend Colorado’ has filed a Colorado Independent Ethics Commission Complaint against Colorado Department of Natural Resources Executive Director Dan Gibbs. The complaint provides evidence of ethics violations related to a $496,000 contract from Gibbs’ Department to his wife’s employer, in direct violation of state law.
While serving as the Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Gibbs directed a state contract award worth $496,000 to his wife’s employer, Keystone Policy Center. Not only does the authorization of this contract violate state ethics laws, but Gibbs also filed false Conflict of Interest Disclosures in 2020 and 2021 stating that his Department has not retained a consultant or contractor in which a member of his immediate family is employed.
The contract was issued on April 22, 2021, by the Colorado Parks and Wildlife, an agency overseen by the Department of Natural Resources Executive Director Gibbs, and was awarded to Keystone Policy Center while it employed Gibbs’ wife, Johanna Raquet Gibbs. The contract was for services related to public outreach on wolf reintroduction in Colorado. Keystone Policy Center was not the lowest bidder for that contract. The second-place bidder, CDR Associates, bid $270,000, 45% lower than the bid by Johanna Raquet Gibbs’ employer.
“Having an Executive Director of a state agency award a $496,000 contract to his wife’s employer, over a competing bid that was nearly 50% lower, and refusing to publicly disclose the conflict of interest, is a clear violation of state law and a blatant disregard of the public trust,” said George Brauchler, who filed the complaint on behalf of Defend Colorado. Brauchler added, “There is a clear pattern of indifference for Colorado’s stringent ethics laws from highest level of state government.”
Gibbs’s conduct of awarding a nearly $500,000 state contract to his wife’s organization and failing to disclose the transaction is a clear violation of Amendment 41 and Colorado Revised Statutes §§ 24-18-103; 24-18-105; 24-18-108; 24-18-201; and multiple executive orders restricting state officials ethical conduct.