Tag: Open Meetings Law

An ethics watchdog group wants a judge to overturn a ruling by the state's top ethics panel that says it's OK for a Colorado lawmaker to accept a trip to Turkey from a Aurora-based cultural foundation, claiming the ruling violates a gift ban in the state constitution.

A judge on Thursday ordered Colorado's top ethics panel to turn over records it went to court to keep secret, including letters from lawmakers and government employees asking for guidance on ethical questions.

The watchdog group that filed ethics charges against former Secretary of State Mike Coffman said Thursday it won't appeal a ruling by the state's top ethics panel that dismissed a complaint alleging the Aurora Republican, who has since won election to Congress, crossed ethical boundaries when he served as the state's top elections officer. Instead, Colorado Ethics Watch called on Coffman and his attorney to help "create a more thorough, accessible and transparent process" for the Independent Ethics Commission to investigate and resolve ethics complaints. The nonprofit group slammed the five-member ethics panel, saying it "shirked its constitutional responsibility to conduct an investigation" and tied the hands of lawyers arguing both sides of the case.

The Coloradoan today reports more evidence that the Colorado State University System board and Joe Blake likely violated state laws by meeting secretly to discuss his application for the chancellorship. Blake formally submitted his application for the position the same day of a closed April 29 meeting with the head of the CSU governing board. Blake, then-vice chair of the board, was named sole finalist for the chancellor position by the board a week later.

Ernest Luning continues the discussion this morning on our exclusive reporting on improprieties by the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission that continues to repeatedly hold secretive, closed-door meetings. The state's top ethics panel Friday denied the Colorado Independent's request for recordings of 14 illegally convened meetings just this year that appear to violate state Open Meetings Law. Ironically, the commission was established in 2006 when voters passed Amendment 41 to demand greater transparency and accountability in government. Tune into KGNU-88.5 FM Boulder/1390 AM Denver at 8:05 a.m. or listen on the livestream.

TCI's own Ernest Luning will appear on the Jay Marvin Show today at 9:00 a.m. MDT to discuss our on-going investigation of the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission and its penchant for flouting Open Meetings Law. Join the AM 760 livestream at the "Listen Up" link. Bonus track: The Coloradoan's Bob Moore is chatting now about the open meetings lawsuit filed by the Fort Collins-based paper, the Pueblo Chieftain and the Colorado Independent last week against the Colorado State University Board of Governors. We have requested a Larimer County judge review recordings of board meetings to determine whether violations occurred during its secretive, closed-door selection of the CSU system chancellor.

The state's top ethics panel formally denied a request for recordings of 14 secret meetings held this year that The Colorado Independent alleges violated the Colorado Open Meetings Law. The Independent is seeking access to audiotapes or minutes of closed-door sessions held between January 14 and April 21 by the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission, arguing they are public records because the secret enclaves were illegally convened.

The Colorado Independent has joined the Fort Collins-based Coloradoan and the Pueblo Chieftain newspapers in a lawsuit against the Colorado State University System Board of Governors for alleged repeated violations of Open Meetings Law during its secretive, closed-door selection of a new system chancellor.

The Colorado Independent on Tuesday asked the state's top ethics panel to turn over recordings of more than a dozen secret meetings held this year — including closed sessions where a member of the panel reported deliberating on an ethics complaint filed against former Secretary of State Mike Coffman, who won election to Congress last fall — charging the panel with violating the state's Open Meetings Law.

The search for Colorado State University's first-ever chancellor has become positively Cheney-esque in its intrigue and now possible law-breaking by the Board of Governors. Bob Moore at the Coloradoan has the goods on the selection of CSU Board of Governors Vice Chairman Joe Blake as its chancellor-finalist.