A decision on an ethics violation complaint levied against Republican Sen. Vicki Marble of Fort Collins is yet another month away, after the members of the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission decided they need more time to hammer out an opinion on the alleged violation.

A month ago, a bet that the commission would vote to dismiss 4-1 would have been a pretty good one. Monday, however, was a different story.

In February the commission spent about two hours deliberating over the alleged violation and the facts tied to it. On Monday, however, and given the gravity of the issue, commissioners said they wanted to provide clarity to both elected officials and to the public in their written opinion. According to at least two commissioners, that means a unanimous 5-0 opinion – one in which Marble could find herself on the losing end.

That’s because Commissioner Matt Smith, who said the meeting itself was a gift to Marble, appears unlikely to move off that position. He picked up at least one other commissioner, Gary Reiff, on Monday.

Commissioners had before them Monday two draft opinions – not released to the public – in which the facts of the matter are relatively in agreement.

On Feb. 15, 2017, Marble hosted a town hall at the CB & Potts in Broomfield, designed as an opportunity for residents to learn about how other communities had dealt with oil and gas issues.

According to testimony presented in a Jan. 8 hearing, the event started out as a meeting on Feb. 1, 2017, in Marble’s office, that included the senator; her then-aide, Sheryl Ann Fernandez; two people associated with Extraction Oil and Gas; and two Broomfield City Council members. Marble suggested a meeting that would feature elected officials from Windsor who had successfully resolved oil and gas development issues. That became the CB & Potts, event, which was organized by an Extraction contractor and Fernandez, who suggested the venue, designed the invitation, developed the agenda, and sent out the invitations, including to a mailing list for her private public relations firm. It was also advertised to members of the Broomfield County GOP, of which Fernandez is the county chair.

Marble was listed in the invitation as the host; she also was the event’s moderator and spoke at the event.

Brian Cain, a public relations contractor for Extraction Oil & Gas, paid for the event, which came to $1,121. That’s the violation, according to complainant Sarah Hall Mann; a gift of a paid-for town hall that served food and drinks to about 70 participants and which exceeded the state ethics gift limit of $59.

One question for commissioners is whether the meeting was a gift to the senator, as Smith maintains, or a gift to the public, an opinion that came from at least two other commissioners.

Reiff, whose draft opinion appears to lead toward a finding of a violation, said the gift was “the lack of transparency, a hidden way for Marble to get publicity” for her views.

Commissioner April Jones cautioned that the commission “doesn’t want to stifle the interaction of elected officials with the public, but we do want to prevent situations where the officials’ own interests are furthered by private financing.”

There are two central issues, according to Smith: transparency and coordination. The transparency issue is that Extraction failed in any way to disclose that it was the real sponsor of the event. And it’s that lack of transparency, Smith said, that pushed him over the line on deciding that Marble had solicited, accepted and/or received a gift.

The coordination issue relates to the fact that Marble and her legislative aide coordinated the event, as evidenced by the Feb. 1 meeting and a series of emails on Feb. 5 with Cain.

The one thing all commissioners agreed upon: that the nature of the event, intended to promote oil and gas activity in Broomfield, has no bearing in their deliberations.

That was a point that commissioners wanted to make very clear on Monday, and it’s because of another event that took place last year that involved a town hall on renewable energy that they also weighed in on.

That 2017 event was the subject of an advisory opinion sought by Democratic Rep. Jonathan Singer of Longmont, who had been invited to participate in a meeting regarding renewable energy and hosted by a third party. Commissioners okayed Singer’s participation in that event, under a premise that elected officials must have opportunities to communicate with their constituents.

Commissioner Bill Leone pointed out that the flyer for the Singer event fully disclosed who was sponsoring it, while the Marble flyer didn’t include that information, nor did any other advertisement of the Feb. 15 event.

The opinion drafted by Leone, which would lean toward dismissal of the complaint, states that the commission would caution elected officials that “closely-coordinated political activities with for-profit organizations could lead to an ethical violation.”

Commissioner Jo Ann Sorensen said she doesn’t see the meeting as a gift, calling it a matter of cooperation between Marble and Extraction, although she was also troubled by the lack of transparency. “It’s not an ethical issue but it’s a pretty awful way of doing business,” Leone added.

The commission again delayed voting on the matter, postponing a decision and further deliberations to their next meeting on April 9.