On May 9, Matthew E. Norwood, an administrative law judge with the Colorado Office of Administrative Courts, imposed a fine of $23,147.86 on†the political committee, Citizens for Reasonable Rational and Responsible Governance, which sent out flyers regarding the May 3, 2016, election for†seats on the Woodmen Hills Metropolitan District Board of Directors.†According to the lawsuit, ìThe fine roughly matches the amount of money that CRRRG sought to hide from public scrutiny.î†The ruling references six individual flyers that were produced and distributed by CRRRG to both support and oppose candidates vying for board†seats in the May 2016 election. The flyers contained various images, including a mug shot photograph of Ron Pace, a WHMD resident, who, at the†time, was running for a seat on the board.†Matt Arnold, director of Campaign Integrity Watchdog, said the CRRRG was formed in September 2015 as the successor organization to the†Alliance for a Safe and Independent Woodmen Hills. ìThe total membership of those two groups is not really known,î Arnold said. ìBut they were both†funded and founded by (Benjamin) ëRustyí Green and Randle Case.îGreen is a developer in the Woodmen Hills subdivision area and Case was the chief executive officer of Case International Co., a real estate†company, until his death in 2016.Arnold, as a non-attorney representative from Denver, brought the lawsuit against the CRRRG on behalf of the CIW, he said. ìAny person in†Colorado can bring a campaign finance claim and prosecute it,î he said. ìAfter seeing what types of injustices were happening, I formed Campaign†Integrity Watchdog. On one hand, I do campaign finance management to make sure companies are complying with the law. On the other side, I go†after the bad guys and hold them accountable for breaking the law.îAccording to the lawsuit, Josh Killett, the current Woodmen Hills board president, was an officer of the CRRRG for a few months in the winter of†2015 and ran against Pace in the 2016 election. The lawsuit also states that Anthony Pizzi was also running for a seat on the board in the same†election. Pizzi is married to Jan Pizzi, who, at the time, was on the WHMD board and also a member of the CRRRG. The lawsuit states that Green had†asked Pizzi to join the CRRRG. Former board member Lynne Bliss was also listed as a member of the CRRRG in the lawsuit.ìIt was the CRRRGís major purpose to support candidates Anthony Pizzi, Joshua Killett and Frank Gonzalez in the May 2016 board of directors†election and to oppose candidates Ron Pace and Janette Hudson,î the lawsuit states. ìThere was no significant evidence offered of any other purpose of†the organization.îArnold said the decision by the court proved that the CRRRG essentially formed a group to influence how the election would turn out.†The most important part of the finding is that the CRRRG broke the law in multiple ways, incurred the biggest adjudicated penalty in the state†and had simultaneous membership of several members of the Woodmen Hills Metro District board while this was going on, he said.ìThis was a collaboration meant to conceal the identities of the wealthy men behind the flyers who collaborated with people who call themselves†citizens and were actually board members of the district,î Pace said.The NFH contacted Green for a comment on the CRRRG ruling. He said, ìNo comment,î and abruptly hung up.Pizzi and Killett declined to comment as well, but Lynn Bliss had this to say.†Bliss, who is a former WHMD board president, said the CRRRG started out with the intention to be a 501 (c) 4 organization that uses†information to educate constituents. That type of activity is legal as long as you do not say whom to vote for, she said. “We strictly stayed away from†that,” Bliss said. “But we seem to have come up against a judge who stretched that and said what we did was still advocacy.”Additionally, as a 501 (c) 4, the CRRRG was not legally obligated to disclose its donors, Bliss said. This is no different from what happens during†campaigns on a national level and state level, she said.However, Norwood’s determination that the CRRRG was a political committee and not a 501 (c) 4 meant those donors and that money needed to†be reported, according to the lawsuit.Bliss said her actions as a member of the CRRRG organization were separate from her role as a board member.She also addressed the mug shot photo of Pace, and said they used it because it was the only photo they had of Pace.†”Everything we said in the flyers was factual,” she said. “We did not make anything up. We were very careful about that.”
