Colorado transparency headlines
From Sunshine Review
This article is a list of transparency related news from Colorado.
Judge declares Boulder City employee surveys to be open records
November 4, 2008: State District Judge Tim Williams ruled today in favor of Boulder City Councilwoman Linda Strickland's request to designate as public records a batch of individual employee survey forms filed with the city in July 2007.
City Attorney Dave Olsen unsuccessfuly argued that the forms, which were filled out anonymously, were "nonrecords" and would have violated employee confidentiality if they were declared public records. The city clerk is currently in possession of the surveys. Link to article.
Access to Ritter's phone data denied
October 15, 2008: A Denver district judge has ruled that records of work-related calls made by Gov. Bill Ritter on a personal cellphone are not open to public review under the Colorado Open Records Act.
Judge Morris B. Hoffman dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking access to Ritter's cellphone bills.
The newspaper sued Ritter after he refused to turn over 19 months of cellphone records that contain the phone numbers of people Ritter has discussed state business with since taking office in 2007. Read the full article here.
City/Times lawsuit ruling could take three months
September 17, 2008: A two-day bench trial in the case concluded late Tuesday afternoon in Morgan County District Court.
District Judge Douglas Vannoy gave attorneys for the two parties four weeks to submit findings of fact and conclusions of law, and said it could be an another two months before he makes a ruling. Read the full article here.
Council testifies in city vs. Times lawsuit
September 16, 2008: Are they — or were they — public records or not?
Trying to find an answer to that question was the object of a long day of testimony in Morgan County District Court on Monday as a two-day bench trial began in a lawsuit between the city of Fort Morgan and The Fort Morgan Times. Read the full article here.
Open records, privacy clash in county database
September 10, 2008: The Delta County clerk and recorder’s policy of observing state law and making all public records available to the public on its website has encountered a question of privacy.
Delta County clerk and recorder Ann Eddins said that she is looking for a sensible solution. Eddins has written to the county clerk’s association attorney asking for guidance on how the office should handle public documents that contain sensitive personal information, including Social Security numbers. Read the full article here.
Colorado elections director resigns amid inquiry
September 6, 2008: The abrupt resignation Thursday of a top elections official at the secretary of state's office happened in the midst of a watchdog group's investigation into her relationship with a local businessman who has contracts with that office.
Holly Lowder, 66, resigned from her post as elections director two months before what is expected to be one of the biggest elections in recent Colorado history. She held that job since 2006. Before that, Lowder served as Alamosa County clerk for about 25 years. Read the full article here.
Group plans to sue three lawmakers, including GJ's Penry
September 3, 2008: A left-leaning watchdog organization has informed state Sen. John Penry, R-Grand Junction, it plans to sue him and two other state lawmakers for failing to turn over documents pertaining to a ballot initiative.
According to a letter faxed Wednesday to legislative attorneys, Colorado Ethics Watch plans to ask a judge to force Penry, Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, and Rep. Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, to comply with an open-records request. Read the full article here.
Ritter attorney seeks dismissal of suit over phone records
August 27, 2008: Lawyers for Gov. Bill Ritter said today that they will seek dismissal of a lawsuit filed by The Denver Post which requests 19 months worth of cell phone records that Ritter has declined to give the newspaper.
Denver District Judge Morris Hoffman gave First Assistant Attorney General Maurice Knaizer - who is representing Ritter - until Sept. 5 to file the motion. Hoffman gave The Post two weeks after that, until Sept. 19, to respond to the motion to dismiss. Read the full article here.
Petty cash payments and open records noncompliance raise questions
August 22, 2008: Activities of the Hartsel Fire Protection District continue to raise eyebrows as new information becomes available about the district's authorization of payment of about $182,000 for Fire Chief Jay Hutcheson's personal legal fees; the district's use of a petty cash fund to make more than $1,000 in payments to Hartsel's Only Bar this past February and April and more than $4,000 to Hutcheson's Maverick Construction Co. for snowplowing; the failure of the district to comply with requests for information in a timely manner, or at all, under Colorado Open Records Law; and its billing one requestor more than $1,000 for legal bills related to her requests. Read the full article here.
Post sues to see Ritter records
August 11, 2008: The Denver Post today sued Gov. Bill Ritter after the governor's refusal to turn over 19 months of cellphone records that would show some of who Ritter has called and been called by since taking office in 2007.
The newspaper claims it is entitled to a list of calls made and received by Ritter during the 19 months related to his work as governor. Read the full article here.
From the editorial advisory board: BVSD and open meetings
August 9, 2008: Two Louisville residents have lodged a complaint with the Boulder Valley school board alleging members violated the state's open-meetings law by using e-mail to discuss public business in private. Read the full editorial here.
Denver should provide more details of security spending
July 25, 2008: Denver's "disclosure" of security-related equipment spending for the Democratic National Convention is hardly an act of "transparency," as the city claims. The one-page-plus-two-lines document resembles an entry in an essay contest requiring responses in 25 words or less, not a reasonable accounting of how the city will spend the public's money. Read the full editorial here.
Government is the people's business
July 18, 2008: My first business cards hadn't even been printed when an editor sent me out to cover a county hospital board meeting. Something about the board hiring a corporate management team.
Snooze.
The chairman gaveled the meeting into session, made a few comments and I scribbled some notes. No news here, I huffed. Then he called for an executive session, cast me out into the hall and closed the doors to the boardroom.
And that's where I sat. For hours.
A doctor, who also had been kicked out of the meeting, finally broke the silence in the hallway,saying, "Don't you think you have a right to be in there, you know, if they're deciding the fate of a publicly held hospital?"
Well, if you put it like that. Read the full column here.
Open-records lawsuit against Aurora councilman dismissed
July 11, 2008: A lawsuit against City Councilman Ryan Frazier that claimed he did not respond to an Aurora resident's open-records request has been thrown out of court.
Foster Hines was seeking documents concerning Frazier's campaign contributions. Read the full article here.
District attorney's expenses questioned
June 23, 2008: Fourth Judicial District Attorney John Newsome took in a college football game in South Bend, Ind., in October and left taxpayers with the bill for six months.
He did repay most of the extra expenses involved in staying two extra days on a trip to Chicago to accompany a detective to interview witnesses in a death-penalty case. Read the full story here.
Info sought on severance tax issue
June 22, 2008: A former state senator from Colorado's eastern plains has filed an open records request to see if the governor's office or any other state body has used taxpayer funds to formulate a controversial ballot measure.
Former Sen. Mark Hillman, R-Burlington, said he filed the request for correspondence between the Colorado Department of Higher Education and the governor's office to see if taxpayer funds were improperly used to push for a ballot measure to increase the severance tax. Read the full story here.
