From the Center Post-Dispatch:  In an Oct. 21 response to a letter written to commissioners by Colorado Press Association attorney Steve Zansberg, Saguache County Attorney Ben Gibbons says he is “contesting allegations” in Zansberg’s letter, but insists that “the requirement for announcing the topic and legal citation for executive session, recording the session and retaining those recordings… has, and is, currently being done.”

Not so Mr. Gibbons, not so. During one meeting recently where an executive session was held, you mentioned only that such a session was needed for personnel matters, the commissioners approved the session, an elected official was quickly pulled into the room and the door was closed. Nothing in way of the statutes was ever read at all, nor was any brief outline of the subject matter to be discussed related as state statute requires.

And this is only one of several instances that could be mentioned.

You state in this same letter that you are contesting allegations, yet you have no idea of what the initial complaints actually were, because this has not been made public. Commissioner Linda Joseph conjectured as to the identification of certain instances, but failed to identify any of the actual objections cited. And while you may not record your meetings, certain BOCC meetings are recorded for purposes of reporting.

Please don’t insult my readers’ intelligence by stating in your letter, “The board continues to review the issue of recording all open meetings, but no decision has been made on that issue.” The decision on recording meetings has indeed been made, and you know it.

Because the failure to make that decision is equivalent to flipping off the entire county, indicating that you have no intention whatsoever to conduct taxpayer business in a transparent and easily accessible manner. When running for office in 2012, then candidate Jason Anderson indicated he favored recording the meetings and fellow candidate Ken Anderson said he was not against it. Really?

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