The Aspen Times:  A critic of Basalt town government has demanded through an open records request that audio tapes of four executive sessions held by the Town Council earlier this year be handed over for public review.

Ted Guy, through his attorney, contends in his Colorado Open Records Act request that the executive sessions — which are closed to the public — were improperly noticed. The notices failed to specify the reason for the private meetings, according to Denver attorney Steve Zansberg.

Town Attorney Tom Smith said Wednesday he had “no comment at this point” when asked if he agreed with Zansberg’s assertion and if the town would make the audio recordings available to the public.

Zansberg filed the open records request Aug. 25. It seeks the audio recordings to executive sessions from April 26, May 24, Aug. 9 and Aug. 11.

He wrote that the agendas for those meetings identified only the statutory provision and general topics of the closed-door meetings. He contends that the topics were later voted on at a public meeting with no further details provided to the public.

“Thus, none of the closed-door meetings was preceded by the statutorily required public identification of the particular matter to be discussed in as much detail as possible without undermining the purpose for which the executive session is authorized,” Zansberg wrote.

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