DENVER — A Denver resident has crammed an ethics criticism towards Mayor Michael Hancock in connection to the mayor traveling over the Thanksgiving holiday, regardless of pleading with Denverites to remain dwelling if doable.
Denver resident Tonia Wilson confirmed with Denver7 on Wednesday that she filed the ethics criticism.
Wilson emailed a press release to Denver7, the place she defined how residents had been outraged by Hancock’s actions.
“If the Mayor really believed, as he suggested residents repeatedly, that journey and get-togethers over Thanksgiving would result in extra lack of stay attributable to COVID, why did he really feel comfy touring and getting along with these exterior of his family throughout that point?” she requested.
The complete assertion is beneath:
I filed this criticism on behalf of all of the Denver residents who had been outraged by the Mayor’s actions over the Thanksgiving vacation. So many people had been indignant concerning the hypocrisy and secrecy surrounding the Mayor’s journey and took to social media to precise that anger; nonetheless, most us didn’t know the best way to channel that vitality extra productively. The Denver Board of Ethics had a proper path to file a criticism, in order that’s the trail I adopted. I’m only a involved Denver citizen doing my finest to get our collective voice heard in an official capability.
If the Mayor really believed, as he suggested residents repeatedly, that journey and get togethers over Thanksgiving would result in extra lack of stay attributable to COVID, why did he really feel comfy touring and getting along with these exterior of his family throughout that point? Why was he keen to gamble with the lives of the very residents for whom he has accountability? Why did the Mayor consider he may leverage his workplace for personal acquire for himself and his fast household? That’s, the power to journey throughout a Code Purple ban.
Probably the most insulting a part of this sage was that, post-travel, the Mayor indicated his option to journey was dictated by his coronary heart, not his head. Thanksgiving 2020 represented a horrible milestone in my household. Whereas my members of the family received collectively again East to commemorate that occasion, I stayed right here in Denver believing my alternative to not journey was the accountable factor to do for the better group. Was the Mayor implying together with his assertion that those that didn’t journey throughout that point simply didn’t love their households as a lot as he beloved his?
Wilson filed the criticism throughout a Board of Ethics digital assembly Wednesday at 9 a.m. The board voted unanimously to hunt a proper response from Hancock.
On Nov. 25, 2020, the day earlier than Thanksgiving, Mike Strott, deputy communications director with the Workplace of the Mayor, confirmed that Hancock had left the state to have a good time the vacation. On the time, about one in 41 Coloradans had been contagious with the novel coronavirus, in response to the Colorado Division of Public Well being and Surroundings.
Hancock released a statement later in the day on Nov. 25 about his choice.
“I absolutely acknowledge that I’ve urged everybody to remain dwelling and keep away from pointless journey. I’ve shared how my household canceled our plans for our conventional multi-household Thanksgiving celebration. What I didn’t share, however ought to have, is that my spouse and my daughter have been in Mississippi, the place my daughter just lately took a job. As the vacation approached, I made a decision it will be safer for me to journey to see them than to have two members of the family journey again to Denver,” Hancock mentioned within the assertion.
“I acknowledge that my choice has disenchanted many who consider it will have been higher to spend Thanksgiving alone,” he continued. “As a public official, whose conduct is rightly scrutinized for the message it sends to others, I apologize to the residents of Denver who see my choice as conflicting with the steering to remain at dwelling for all however important journey. I made my choice as a husband and father, and for individuals who are indignant and disenchanted, I humbly ask you to forgive choices which can be borne of my coronary heart and never my head.”
