Denver International Airport spent more than $21,000 on a retirement party for a departing senior vice president, and the city's own ethics board says the spending was inappropriate. The January gathering honoring Greg Hegarty, senior vice president of operations at the airport, cost roughly $466 per person among the 45 people who showed up out of 100 invited guests.
According to CBS Colorado, the party was held at the Westin Denver International Airport on January 13. The tab included nearly $3,000 for a cheese and sausage display, about $1,000 for Colorado lamb lollipops, and $864 for seared beef tenderloin. The Denver Board of Ethics said using more than $20,000 in public money for the event was inappropriate, noting that Denver retirement parties are generally paid for by participants and typically do not cost more than $20,000.
The ethics board said it expects city officers, officials and employees — particularly leaders — to uphold integrity in decision-making, and concluded that the conduct surrounding the party fell short of those expectations and eroded public confidence. The board also found that the Denver Code of Ethics and fiscal accountability rules were not heeded in planning or executing the event, and said city officials are stewards of public funds.
A Vendor Picked Up the Bar Tab
Tegan Kissane, vice president of operations at the airport, arranged the Westin venue and food for the party. Jacob Lorenz said he arranged for insurance broker Marsh to volunteer about $3,000 to cover alcohol at the event, in an effort to help celebrate Hegarty's retirement. Marsh had existing contracts with Denver International Airport, and the ethics board said that vendor-funded alcohol arrangement was improper, warning it created either an appearance of impropriety or an actual ethics-code violation.
Denver International Airport maintains multi-million-dollar risk management contracts with Marsh, including a $35 million Rolling Owner Controlled Insurance Program approved by the Denver City Council in 2025, following a $52.8 million multi-year expansion of an earlier version of the same contract, according to City and County of Denver Legistar records. Under Section 2-60 of the Denver Code of Ethics, laid out in the City and County of Denver Ethics Handbook, city officers and employees are prohibited from soliciting or accepting gifts — including food, alcohol, and travel expenses — from any individual or vendor with an existing, pending, or prospective business relationship with the city. The board, however, cleared Kissane of a proven city ethics-code violation, saying there was not clear and convincing evidence that she violated the city's ethics code.
Construction Forced the Party Off-Site
The airport held some retirement events at hotel conference facilities because its primary large-capacity conference space was unavailable due to construction, the ethics board noted. Denver International Airport now hosts retirement events in a DEN conference space instead, which the board said has reduced retirement-event costs. Spokesperson Stacey Stegman said the airport respects the ethics board's findings and is reviewing how it handles employee recognition and retirement events, adding that all public funds must be managed responsibly and transparently. CEO Dave Laporte directed airport leadership to review and strengthen employee recognition and retirement-event practices.
Denver International Airport operates with a separate budget not supported by local tax dollars, drawing revenue instead from landing fees, concessions, parking fees, rental car fees and leases. Still, its employees remain bound by the same fiscal rules that apply citywide, which require expenditures to serve official city business, be in the city's best interest, be necessary and reasonable, and avoid personal benefits to employees.
The Timing Problem: Layoffs and Furloughs
The party unfolded as Denver grappled with a $200 million budget deficit. In May 2025, Mayor Mike Johnston required all 15,000 city workers — including Denver International Airport personnel — to take mandatory unpaid furlough days, even though the airport's enterprise budget receives no city general tax revenues, according to 9News. That August, the city eliminated 169 municipal jobs and cut 665 vacant positions to close the gap, saving $104 million in personnel costs while straining operations across departments, CBS News reported.
A February 2026 analysis found that Denver's 2025 workforce reductions wiped out more than 1,158 combined years of institutional experience, with the transportation department alone losing 265 years of expertise, according to the Denver Gazette. The ethics board pointed to that backdrop directly, saying employees lost jobs and residents suffered as city services were cut back even as the retirement party moved forward.
Not the First Spending Flap at DEN
The retirement party controversy follows an earlier 2025 ethics board review of a $165,000 trip that sent nine senior Denver International Airport executives to a three-day conference in Madrid, Spain. That trip included business- or first-class travel for all nine executives, with one round-trip airfare costing more than $19,000 and another topping $15,000. The board ultimately cleared CEO Phil Washington of ethics violations over the trip but said it was appalled by the costs involved.
Mayor Johnston publicly criticized the Madrid spending, saying he had never paid $19,000 for an airline ticket and that such costs did not align with public expectations for managing public funds. The Madrid travel spending prompted both the ethics investigation and changes to airport travel policies. It is not the first time vendor-funded perks have triggered scrutiny in Denver city government: in May 2019, Denver Public Works officials faced an ethics investigation after accepting vendor-funded hotel stays and factory tours in Italy from street sweeper vendor Dulevo before recommending a $221,060 sole-source contract for the company.
The spending controversies arrive as Denver International Airport also faces scrutiny over passenger experience. In September, J.D. Power ranked the airport 18th out of 20 mega-airports in North America for passenger satisfaction, continuing a decline from 7th place in 2023 amid ongoing Great Hall terminal construction, as Hoodline previously reported.
