By Colorado Hometown Weekly:  Several elected officials in Erie raised their voices at a Jan. 26 meeting while discussing whether a previous email discussion between some of them violated state open meeting laws.

Town administrator A.J. Krieger apparently sent an email question to Board of Trustees members and the mayor on Jan. 22 generally asking if they wanted to waive a $12,000 permit fee for the new Mountain View Fire Rescue station, based on trustee comments at the Jan. 26 public meeting. It appears that several of the trustees communicated with one another by email on Jan. 22, and at least four of them sent emails back to Krieger, according to comments some made in the Jan. 26 meeting.

Trustee Janice Moore said at the meeting that she thought the permit fee waiver discussion should have happened first in public.

“When conversations occur in email, and we’re spending money, that is wrong in my opinion,” Moore said. “I brought it up because that was not transparent government, and now we’re having transparent government.”

When Mayor Tina Harris asked town attorney Mark Shapiro if the board had done anything illegal by discussing the issue by email, he demurred, saying he couldn’t give advice to the board in an open meeting.

But according to Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition executive director Jeff Roberts, any local board must open its meetings to the public if there’s a quorum of three or more — no matter what the venue is. Such meetings must be publicized, just as any other government meetings are, he said. The Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition is a nonpartisan group of news organizations, individuals and others that work to ensure transparency in government.

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