UNBRIDLED SECRECY POISONS GOOD GOVERNMENT

To the detriment of the public, transparency of government in Colorado is taking a pounding from court interpretations that continue to weaken key elements of the state’s Open Meetings and Open Records laws. Two current examples:

Based on fairly clear-cut evidence, the Longmont Times-Call filed a complaint in Boulder District Court in June alleging that the local city council violated the executive-session provision of the Open Meetings law (i.e., no public policy can be formed or straw votes taken behind closed doors). Five months later, in November, the judge ruled that since the executive session was announced as an attorney-client briefing wherein no tape recordings or written records were required, there was nothing to review and sent the case back to the newspaper, leaving the alleged violation unaddressed.

Obviously, this half-baked ruling invites abuse of the OML by opportunistic public officials who can now hide behind the anonymity and confidentiality of the executive session at will by simply calling it an “attorney-client briefing.”

The Open Records law: In an effort to get some idea of with whom and what our governor might be discussing in the calls he makes when conducting the people’s business on his private telephone, The Denver Post has been rebuffed by the Colorado Court of Appeals which won’t allow the public watchdog to see the records.

Another precedent-setting court decision that, if allowed to stand, will encourage public officials at all levels in Colorado to govern via their private phones and the public be damned.

Secrecy is making serious inroads into our governmental systems; not good news if you believe in freedom.