Mayor Dunafon And Former Councilman Jeff Allen Fully Exonerated
by Mark Smiley
In a startling reversal of fortune Russell Kemp of the law firm of Ireland, Stapleton, Pryor & Pascoe, PC has had an ethics grievance lodged against him with the Colorado Supreme Court’s Office of Attorney Regulation. The complaint against Kemp (Case No. 16-7526) alleges that he violated Rule 4.5 of the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct when he filed what was found by the Glendale City Council to be a frivolous complaint against former Glendale City Councilman Jeff Allen for voting to approve the City’s general 2016 budget.
Rule 4.5 prohibits attorneys from presenting administrative charges “solely to obtain an advantage in a civil matter.” Kemp is the attorney for M.A.K. Investment Group, LLC whose principals own Authentic Persian & Oriental Rugs. He and his firm have brought two lawsuits in state court and one in federal court in Colorado against the City of Glendale relating to the Glendale 180 project which involves building an entertainment district on East Virginia Avenue where MAK owns land. Kemp and his firm have also filed over 15 separate open record requests resulting in almost 100,000 city documents being produced.
Allen indicated that “MAK and its attorneys and agents have been at war with Glendale for several years which includes filing frivolous ethics complaints against myself and Glendale Mayor Mike Dunafon. Ireland Stapleton through its litigation has cost its client hundreds of thousands of dollars for no discernable purpose or gain other than greatly enriching the law firm. The ethics complaint against me was a joke and this type of litigation tactic by Kemp simply should not be tolerated by the Colorado Supreme Court or the legal community as a whole.”
On March 18 Kemp and Ireland Stapleton filed a complaint against Allen that by voting along with a unanimous City Council to approve the 2016 City Budget, Allen violated the Glendale Code of Ethics Section 2.14.040(B) by performing “official act directly or substantially affecting to its economic benefit.” It was purported by Kemp since Allen works for the Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce gets funds from the City he could not vote on the general budget. But City Attorney Jeff Springer pointed out that the budget does not break out anything for the Chamber but simply has a line for possible allocation to non-profits and further any money to the Chamber comes from a pre-existing 2004 Ordinance. The City Attorney indicated that the complaint was so obviously meritless that he did not deem it worthy of even referring it out to an outside independent council.
MAK is also alleged to have gotten Colorado Ethics Watch to file an ethics complaint against Glendale Mayor Mike Dunafon claiming he should not have voted to approve a site plan of a company one of whose shareholders was his wife Debra Matthews for a marijuana dispensary. Colorado Ethics Watch has been accused by some of being a “left-wing litigation machine” that has a “pay for play” model whereby it will file complaints against targets proposed by those who fund Ethics Watch’s 
activities.
The complaint of Ethics Watch was dismissed as “frivolous” by a unanimous City Council after outside legal counsel Nathan Chambers pointed out that Ethics Watch didn’t even bother to check whether Dunafon and Matthews were in fact married at the time of vote. Chambers noted that he had checked the applicable records and had confirmed that they were not married and therefore there was absolutely no basis for the complaint in the first place.
Dunafon stated, however, that the frivolous filing had its intended effect. “MAK and its attorneys and publicity agents had the complaint splashed all over the local and even regional press. The finding that the complaint had no merit and was frivolous got absolutely no publicity. They knew what they were doing and it’s repugnant.”
Allen concluded, “It is sad and pathetic what Mohammad Ali Kheirkhahi, Nasrin Kholghy and the rest of the vicious crew will do to people in order to try to force a rezoning of a parcel of land that is opposed by almost everyone in Glendale and all the surrounding Denver neighborhoods. People like Russell Kemp are the reason why Americans have such an incredibly low opinion of lawyers and their ethics. He should not be practicing law.”