Pitkin County commissioner candidate Shellie Roy is defending the commission she made on the sale of Smuggler Mountain land three years ago, saying she intentionally involved another broker so as not to violate the county’s home-rule charter.
Roy, a broker at Frias Properties, said she was cognizant of the county rule that bars county policy makers “to appear in a representative capacity before the Board of County Commissioners” for two years following their departure from office. Roy served as a commissioner for eight years before Michael Owsley unseated her in 2004.
Now Roy, the challenger, is under fire from Owsley, the incumbent, who claims his opponent in the November election breached the public trust when she used knowledge she gleaned as a commissioner for her own financial gain. Before becoming one of the listing agents for the seller, Wilk Wilkinson, Roy had spent years on the other side of the table negotiating the sale of Smuggler on behalf of the county.
“She has ethical blindness is what she has,” Owsley said Friday.
Asked if he believes Roy violated the county charter, Owsley said the wording of the code is such that it’s a question for lawyers to debate, noting that “it’s hard to write a charter of everything Shellie shouldn’t do. But common sense will tell you that when you’re representing someone, negotiating on behalf of someone after having just spent eight years on the other side is a breach of public trust. You’re completely at fault.”
Roy says she brought in Debra Goldstein to negotiate on behalf of Wilkinson because she knew that she wasn’t allowed to under county law.
“That’s why I got another lister and that’s why I brought all these other people in,” she said. “But I didn’t profit as a commissioner within two years of time leaving office. I profited from being a Realtor with Frias Properties. There is absolutely no rule that says I can’t make a living.”
Roy maintains she helped save Smuggler from private development.
“I listed a property that had two free-market contracts. I would have been paid had it gone to the free market. So I fail to understand why by steering it to the county as a third project, I suddenly shouldn’t be paid,” she said.
The other broker, Goldstein, and Wilkinson’s life partner, Sharyn Wynters, told The Aspen Times last week that Roy was unjustly hogging the glory of saving Smuggler. Wynters also claimed Wilkinson was upset Roy received a commission on the deal since she didn’t negotiate with the county.
Roy dismissed their claims as jealousy. She said she received close to $90,000 in net commission, but when asked about discrepancies between that figure and other numbers that have been reported, she said she was uncertain how much she actually made.
Owsley has also questioned Roy’s vote to appropriate $200,000 to the Aspen Historical Society on Nov. 17, 2004, for “financial support.” Roy seconded the appropriation even though she also sat on the board of the Aspen Historical Society. It passed 4-1.
Roy responded that county commissioners and city policy makers are appointed to sit on the boards of various organizations, RFTA for example, and they often make decisions that affect their other boards.
Her board position on the Aspen Historic Society, however, was not a county appointment but her own voluntary choice. Roy said she served on many boards as a commissioner and didn’t make that distinction.
“If anybody on the board had a concern, they could have raised their hand and said it wasn’t appropriate. But they didn’t,” she said.
Roy recommended that Owsley file a formal grievance if he is so concerned with her actions.
“There is a process in Pitkin County’s code where he can file a grievance against me, and they will form an ethics committee and they will review all of this, instead of it being reviewed by reporters and he-said, she-said.”
County attorney John Ely, an expert on the issue, was out of town and could not be reached for comment.
hoop@aspendailynews.com
Comments
roy
The first 92K was consentual. Ho-Ho Kobe
ethics are important
KNCB Moore
Ms Roy should always ask, " Are you the consenting adult or am I ? "
That's what ethics is all about.