An anonymous Denver city employee has filed an ethics complaint against City Attorney Miko Brown, alleging she may have violated the Denver Code of Ethics in connection with the city’s hiring of the law firm where Brown previously worked.
The complaint was filed Friday, one day after a CBS Colorado investigation reported that Denver is paying four lawyers at Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell $800 an hour to defend the city in two lawsuits filed by one current and one former City of Denver employee.
The firm has billed the city more than $850,000 in four months, despite having a one-year contract initially capped at $470,000.
The anonymous employee’s complaint raises many of the same questions posed by the CBS Colorado investigation, including Brown’s role in selecting Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell, whether she recommended her former firm and who negotiated and approved the firm’s hourly rates…