From The Gazette (Colorado Springs): Transparent government is a Colorado virtue. Laws that mandate open records, meetings and process are about as controversial as mom and apple pie.
That’s because government is chosen and funded by the people to serve the people, so almost nothing should be done in secrecy to exclude the people.
Yet, few Coloradans know their most fundamental expectations of open meetings are under attack.
A court ruling, which has received almost no media attention, threatens a law that says local governing bodies cannot adopt “any proposed policy, position, resolution, rule or regulation or tak[ing] formal action by secret ballot.”
The language of the law comes from House Bill 12-1169, proposed by Colorado Springs Republican State Rep. Bob Gardner in 2012. It was enacted as a means to protect the public from secret ballots.
Shockingly, members of the Arvada City Council chose to blatantly violate a law they clearly don’t like.
Visit The Gazette for more.