For the third year in a row, a bill that would add school boards and special districts to the jurisdiction of the state’s independent ethics commission has failed.

The measure died in the Senate Appropriations Committee on Monday.

House Bill 1079 is the third attempt by Rep. Tammy Story, D-Evergreen, to add school boards and special districts — and their direct hires — under the ethics commission’s authority.

Article 29 defines a public officer, covered under the commission, as “any elected officer, including all statewide elected officeholders, the head of any department of the executive branch, and elected and appointed members of state boards and commissions.”

Notably, the definition excludes any member of a board, commission, council or committee “who receives no compensation other than a per diem allowance or necessary and reasonable expenses.”

While a few school boards, including Denver, pay their elected board members, most of the members of the state’s 178 school districts and more than 2,700 special districts — covering fire, water, sanitation, metropolitan, hospitals and libraries — do not receive compensation.

Article 29 identifies two specific areas under the commission’s purview: violations of the state’s gift ban and lobbying by former state lawmakers within two years of leaving office. It can also look at complaints of breaches of “standards of conduct or reporting requirements as provided by law.”

The commission receives, on average, about 35 complaints per year, and on it average accepts fewer than five annually for investigation.

The commission has issued hundreds of opinions regarding its authority, the vast majority tied to financial issues, such as gift bans and travel expenses. It has never issued an opinion that would define the standards of conduct or reporting requirements that would fall under its purview.

HB 1079 won a party-line 41-23 vote from the House on April 28 and a party-line 3-2 vote from the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee on May 1.

The question around the constitutionality of trying to make the change contained in HB 1079 has been part of the reason previous attempts have failed, and Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, R-Brighton, cited it again on Monday during the Senate appropriations hearing.

“It’s not appropriate nor plausible to expand jurisdiction” due to those constitutional limitations, Kirkmeyer said.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Mike Weissman, D-Aurora, said he checked with the Office of Legislative Legal Services, the General Assembly’s lawyers, and maintained he would not have proceeded if it weren’t constitutional.

The Colorado Independent Ethics Commission did not seek the changes proposed by the bill, according to its executive director.

House Bill 1079 was laid over to May 10, three days after the end of the 2025 session, effectively killing it.