Denver, Austin, Boise, Charlotte and similar cities were in a huge growth phase as the population shifted from the New York’s and San Francisco’s of the country to more manageable places.
As with any growth opportunity, both the ethical and the unethical rear their heads and seek to advantage of the positive – or the negative.
The Chief Building Officer
In Denver, the chief building officer in this time of explosive growth is Scott Prisco. He is the person ultimately responsible for expediting the approval of projects. As can be imagined, when a city “gets discovered,” and the builders flock in, there is a logjam of projects demanding attention. What should be a level playing field sometimes becomes a strange competition, especially when the building officer is also a builder.
At this time, Scott Prisco is under investigation by Denver’s Board of Ethics. Though Prisco is not inexperienced enough to believe no one is looking at his behavior, he was transparent enough to come under scrutiny.
Allegedly, Prisco has by-passed the logjam of the building approval process to give a green light to construction plans pushed forward by his family.
The Board of Ethics (BOE) was prompted into action after three whistle-blowers, complained that Prisco “used his office to further his personal business interests.”
According to testimonies received by the BOE, Prisco “steered approvals for a real estate project headed by a company, Hip Homes.” It was quickly discovered that Hip Homes was owned by his Prisco’s wife.
It has also been reported in the Denver media that, “Prisco came under further scrutiny last month after posting a tweet on Oct. 11 urging the public to attend an Oct. 15 open house for Hip Homes’ first prototype home.”
If that were not unethical enough, the advertisement posted on social media included “a Denver logo and listed him as the Engineering & Architecture Director/Building Officer for the City and County of Denver.” It made the advertisement to appear that it was officially sanctioned when in fact, Prisco was using his office and the city logo to advance his own business interests.
City Email Irregularities
If Prisco was not unethical enough in advancing his cause, he also used his official city email to coax city employees to “do him a favor” to help him avoid delay of the Hip Homes project, and help him push the project along. Indeed, the property lists him as an owner.
As the ethics board flagged Prisco’s behavior, he issued the following response:
“With regards to my working on the Hip Homes LLC project during working hours, I explicitly answered the question that was asked that I only work onsite on my days off and on weekends or week nights after working hours. Inspections were not completed while I was on site.”
However, his response failed to note previous conversations that he had with the BOE regarding his personal building projects. According to reports, “The board advised him against using city resources including time, computers, paper and telephones for any outside business, and advised against him being involved in the permitting, inspection or construction of Hip Homes projects.”
He obviously used his professional status as chief building officer to advance his own cause. He allegedly used his position as well as the city’s resources to promote and advance the Hip Homes Project.
In the absence of oversight, Prisco functioned as gatekeeper, publicist, politician and lobbyist to advance his cause. The BOE specifically advised him against any involvement in his own self-promotion. He interpreted the fact that he contacted the BOE as proof he had done the right thing.
His need to commit alleged fraud was profit. In a city such as Denver where there is a housing shortage, it is obvious that new construction will attract buyers. If he could be ahead of the demand with “Hip Homes,” he would guarantee himself of quick sales.
How does someone rationalize such behavior? Easy. He saw himself as being in a position to both oversee the approval process, and to be the approval process. Three whistle blowers saw right through his rationalization and now he could pay the price.
It leads us to asking why no one ever saw the potential for a conflict of interest and also why, Prisco was not subjected to ethical training – and ethical expectations prior to assuming his city position?
