From The Denver Post:

One of the central complaints cited in the effort to oust three Jefferson County school board members is the claim the members lack transparency in making major policy decisions — but testing the claim is difficult.

The recall ballot states that the GOP board majority “repeatedly violated Colorado open meeting laws by secretly making major decisions behind closed doors.”

The board members facing the recall vote — chairman Ken Witt, John Newkirk and Julie Williams — dispute the assertion.

The evidence isn’t definitive. A legal complaint was never filed in district court, a fact that creates a void that allows both sides to make opposite arguments.

The ultimate truth test, according to legal experts, is the ballot. “The registered electors,” the state constitution reads, “shall be the sole and exclusive judges of the legality, reasonableness and sufficiency” of grounds for recall.

To justify the claim, the recall petitioners point to the board’s split decision to hire attorney Brad Miller at the Dec. 12, 2013, meeting.

The board held the vote in public at a regular meeting, as required by state law, but it did not conduct a public interview process. Instead, the Republican board members spoke with candidates in private on their own. The state’s sunshine law requires all formal board action to take place in public meetings.

An open government expert, attorney Thomas Kelley, suggested at the time that the hiring may violate the open meetings law.

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