A united Northglenn City Council voted Wednesday night to file an ethics complaint against State Sen. Faith Winter for showing up drunk to an April 3 community meeting of over 400 people. Winter was invited to the meeting to discuss a controversial move by the state to place group homes in a Northglenn neighborhood that would house convicted sex offenders.
Council members said there was no other way to punish Winter for her conduct since she is term-limited and can’t be voted out of office. Anyone else who showed up drunk to their job would face dire consequences, council members said.
“None of us can show up at a council meeting and be intoxicated,” said Mayor Pro Tem Shannon Lukeman-Hiromasa. “In some way, shape or form, we would face consequences. I think we need to send a clear message that you cannot show up to a job in that manner.”
Mayor Meredith Leighty joined eight council members to send the complaint to the officials in the state senate. Leighty and Lukeman-Hiromasa said senate leaders need to confront Winter’s problem with alcohol.
“This was not a single incident,” Leighty said. “There has been an ongoing history of this behavior. We just cannot continue to look away.”
“We are asking all our state senators to step up and do the right thing,” Leighty said. “Up to now, they have not.”
Winter apologizes
In a May 1 letter to the city council, Winter apologized for her behavior at the community meeting and said her actions that night led her to seek treatment for substance abuse disorder.
“Coming forward so publicly to admit I had a substance abuse disorder has been incredibly scary and hard,” Winter said in her letter which was emailed Wednesday afternoon. “And I recognize how meaningful leading policy from lived experience.”
Council members said they had compassion for Winter and her fight against alcohol. But now is probably the time for tough love, they said.
“If there is a problem, try and identify it,” Councilman Richard Kondo said. “If you don’t you are perpetuating the culture of acceptance for mediocre behavior.”
City Attorney Corey Hoffmann said he did not know how the senate leaders would handle the complaint. This year’s legislative session, he noted, is nearly over.
Transitional housing meeting
Northglenn city officials called for the April 3 meeting to scrutinize plans by the state to place a Mental Health Transition Living Facility at 11255 and 11275 Grant Drive.
Neighbors were enraged to learn the facility would have included convicted sex offenders, complaining the sex offenders would be living too close to schools.
The state has since backed off the proposal and indicated sex offenders would no longer be housed at the Mental Health Transition Facilities.
Winter was invited to the April 3 meeting because she represents most of the city of Northglenn in the legislature. Winter also co-sponsored the legislation that created the transition facilities – HB22-1303, according to a city staff report to the city council.
Winter arrived late to the meeting “… and various individuals indicated Senator Winter appeared to have glassy eyes, slurred speech, and some individuals smelled alcohol on her breath, and as a result, she also appeared at various times disinterested, annoyed, and combative,” according to the resolution the city council passed Wednesday.