Ethics complaints against Pueblo city councilor unanimously dismissed

Former city councilman Chris Nicoll's two ethics complaints against Councilor Dennis Flores were unanimously dismissed by Pueblo City Council on July 22.

Nicoll had accused Flores, a councilman representing Pueblo at-large, of nepotism and religious discrimination after Flores voted in favor of appointing Chuck Hernandez to a city council vacancy in February and later, after Hernandez resigned from the seat, did not support Nicoll for the position based on Nicoll's affiliation with the conservative Christian group Forging Pueblo .

Hernandez is a second cousin of Flores' late wife. That relationship is not close enough to be considered family under city code, according to a July 22 staff report from City Attorney Carla Sikes. Additionally, Sikes stated that Nicoll's claims of religious discrimination were unfounded as the section of city code cited by Nicoll in his complaint was not applicable to council members and Forging Pueblo is a political committee, not a "protected class."

"Just because (Forging Pueblo) is made up of people that are affiliated with religious organizations doesn't mean that it is a religion," Sikes said.

Mark Aliff, Brett Boston, Roger Gomez, Joe Latino and Regina Maestri were the five council members present to unanimously dismiss the complaints. Flores recused himself from voting due to a conflict of interest and Sarah Martinez was on parental leave. Aliff and Gomez voted to dismiss the complaints despite Aliff being one of Forging Pueblo's founding members and both councilmen receiving endorsements from the organization in 2023.

On July 23, Flores told the Chieftain that he was "disturbed" that Nicoll's complaints were given any credibility. He also said he feels that the complaints may have been an attempt by Nicoll to get publicity and "trash" his reputation.

Nicoll's allegation of religious discrimination stemmed from a phone conversation between him and Flores. The at-large councilman said Nicoll had contacted him in attempt to "lobby" for a position on city council. Flores said he did not see anything wrong with Nicoll's lobbying but told Nicoll he couldn't vote for him because of Nicoll's involvement in Forging Pueblo's political philosophy.

Forging Pueblo was founded in 2018 with the goal of influencing "all major areas of society," including Pueblo government, the organization stated on an early version of its website that was later taken down. The previous version of the Forging Pueblo website was accessed by the Chieftain through the internet archive .

"I'm a Christian myself," Flores said. "I consider myself a Catholic... My problem is bringing religious beliefs into government and trying to create some sort of theocracy."

Nicoll told the Chieftain that he believes Flores was not objecting to Forging Pueblo based on its political efforts, but based on its religious beliefs. He also maintains the belief that Flores should have recused himself from voting to appoint Hernandez despite city code only extending the definition of family to first cousins.

Nicoll supported his belief that Flores should have recused himself with a statement from an ethics handbook that councilors "should avoid even the appearance of impropriety or a conflict of interest."

"He knew the vote was tight that night and so I question his ethics on that," Nicoll said. "He may be skirting by the letter of the law but that's not what the ethics handbook says."

Flores told the Chieftain that he was not well-acquainted with Hernandez, despite Hernandez being a relative of his late wife.

"(Hernandez) was a total stranger to me... I selected him for city council because he had the best educational background," Flores said.

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Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached at JBartolo@gannett.com. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Ethics complaints against Pueblo city councilor unanimously dismissed