The Durango Herald: Citizens have a right to know what the City of Durango is doing financially. That’s a given. The timely question, though, is whether the public is best served when financial records are released before draft figures are finalized, causing confusion and chaos? Or after an audit when numbers are confirmed? Which numbers are more telling?

The answer depends on whom you’re asking. Durango resident John Simpson recently filed a lawsuit against City Clerk Faye Harmer, claiming he was wrongly denied financial records on the city’s lodgers tax collections in 2021.

Simpson said Durango City Council and Harmer denied his open records request, saying the financial statement was a “work product” and not covered by the Colorado Open Records Act.

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