It is a bill good-government activists were supposed to get behind enthusiastically. Then they read it. Now they now decry it as being ambiguously worded and ripe for abuse.
The bill was never really debated in the Senate where it was introduced, then it was tacked on to a House bill amid the blizzard of activity that marked the last days of the Colorado legislative session. Government watchdog and elections groups on the right and left are now asking Gov. John Hickenlooper to veto it, arguing the bill would deny citizens the right to inspect voter ballots and “gut” the state’s Open Records Act.
Nonprofit Colorado Ethics Watch filed a formal request Thursday seeking information on the moonlighting plans announced by recently sworn in Secretary of State Scott Gessler and State Treasurer Walker Stapleton. The Open Records request comes a week after revelations of the men’s plans sparked a steady stream of reports in the media on potential conflicts of interest, particularly surrounding the plan announced by Gessler, a high-profile partisan politics attorney, to work on a contract basis for his former firm. The Ethics Watch request will likely seek emails passed between the officeholders and advisers, including attorney general’s office staff.
Monday, Governor Ritter issued an executive order requiring his cabinet members and senior staff to submit conflict of interest disclosure reports by 25 October. The new order replaces a similar standing order issued a decade ago by the governor’s…
Building from reports last month on a possible breach of campaign-finance regulations, Colorado Ethics Watch has filed a Colorado Opens Record Act request to determine whether the government-funded Colorado Senate Minority Office provided the gubernatorial campaign of Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry (R-Grand Junction) with email contact lists. Colorado law prohibits state agencies from providing contributions to a campaign. Ethics Watch contends the email lists are valuable and would amount to a campaign contribution.
As one of his first official acts, President Barack Obama issued an executive memorandum instructing members of his administration “to operate under principles of openness, transparency and of engaging citizens with their government.” There are a number of ways Colorado state and local government can follow suit and join the President in his commitment to an “unprecedented level of openness in government.”
“It’s the public’s right to know!” The phrase has been spouted by reporters and paparazzi alike.
But under the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA), it really is the public’s right to know, and that’s not to say government transparency…
Collective bargaining for state employees may not seem like a boiling topic when compared to controversial debates on immigration or gay marriage, but the issue has garnered enough attention to spawn at least six open records requests directed at the…
Among the small mountain hamlets dotting the canyons and valleys across the Western Slope, it been a summer filled with intrigue and gossip and conjecture.
A man no one has ever heard of, who’s not from around there, wants…
People say stupid things that they shouldn’t in e-mails. As a result, political scandals in Colorado and nationally frequently turns on the ability of outsiders to get copies of telltale e-mails.
Colorado law is kind to public…
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