Tag: Open Meetings Law

DENVER — Colorado’s top ethics panel agreed Friday to release unedited audio recordings of two secret meetings and plans to turn over redacted recordings of five additional closed-door meetings conducted earlier this year. The announcement came during a hearing in Denver District Court on a lawsuit filed by The Colorado Independent alleging the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission illegally met behind closed doors a dozen times between January and May.

A Larimer County judge this afternoon ordered the Colorado State University Board of Governors to make public further recordings of a closed-door session last month during which it secretly interviewed candidates for the university's new chancellorship and decided to select its vice chairman Joe Blake as sole finalist for the position. Judge Stephen Schapanski's ruling comes in a case brought by The Colorado Independent, the Fort Collins' Coloradoan and the Pueblo Chieftain, which argued the university violated state open meetings laws in its search for a chancellor.

Six weeks after an investigation by The Colorado Independent found repeated violations of the Colorado Open Meetings Law by the Independent Ethics Commission, the panel charged with enforcing ethical standards among public officials across the state has taken dramatic steps toward greater transparency and disclosure.

Colorado State University lawyers are attempting to regain control of recordings of a CSU board meeting held in secret last month where members decided to select their own vice chairman, Joe Blake, as sole finalist for the new university chancellorship. CSU is being sued by The Colorado Independent, the Fort Collins Coloradoan and Pubelo Chieftain for violating state open-meeting laws. Larimer County judge Stephen Schapanski earlier ordered CSU to turn over the meeting recordings so that he could review them in chambers to determine, in part, how the court should proceed.

In papers submitted to a Larimer court last night, Colorado State University attorneys argue that CSU board members did not break state transparency laws when they voted in private to make board Vice Chair Joe Blake CSU chancellor because Blake had recused himself as Vice Chair roughly a week before the vote.

The Colorado Independent sued the state's Independent Ethics Commission Wednesday night alleging the panel has repeatedly violated the Colorado Open Meetings Law since January by meeting behind closed doors to formulate policy and adopt positions on questions about ethical conduct by public officials.

Three Colorado watchdog groups have joined together to demand Colorado State University rescind its decision to hire Denver Chamber of Commerce President Joe Blake as the university's new standalone chancellor.

Larimer County Judge Stephen Schapanski this morning agreed with attorneys for three media outlets suing Colorado State University, saying that in light of the evidence so far presented there is sufficient reason to believe the CSU Board violated state open-meeting laws when it selected Board Vice Chairman Joe Blake as the only finalist for the new university chancellor position.

Recordings of a May 5 closed-door meeting released Wednesday by the Colorado State University governing board all but confirm that board members violated state open-meetings laws, first in discussing the candidacy of Joe Blake, a member of the board, and then again in making the decision that he would be their choice as sole finalist for the university's new standalone chancellor position.

A watchdog group will get the chance to read complaints filed this year with the state's top ethics panel alleging wrongdoing or ethical misconduct by public officials. Reversing its policy, the Independent Ethics Commission notified Colorado Ethics Watch on Wednesday it would release "all non-frivolous complaints filed in 2009." The move is in response to a Colorado Open Records Request from the nonprofit group and in light of a judge's decision last week that said the government ethics panel can't keep other documents from public view.