Colorado lawmakers’ new Capitol harassment policy is held up on accuser confidentiality

Colorado Public Radio: In the final days of Colorado’s legislative session, lawmakers are poised to move forward with changes to how workplace harassment complaints are handled at the Capitol.

However, some of the very people who have filed formal complaints or spoke out about harassment under the gold dome tell CPR they won’t vote for it in its current form. It’s now unclear whether it has the votes to pass both chambers.

“I can’t vote for something that makes it scarier for complainants to come forward. Without confidentiality for complainants we are increasing the politicization of the process,” said Sen. Faith Winter.

The Democrat was the first to publicly accuse former Democratic Rep. Steve Lebsock of sexual harassment. In a historic vote, he was expelled last session.

A big goal for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle has been to remove legislative leaders from handling complaints. The idea is that it would make it less political because not every decision would fall on a few partisan leaders. To that end, the House and Senate each created bipartisan workplace committees to handle complaints.

The disagreement is over how much information those committees get.

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