CFOIC asked the state’s highest court to affirm that when a public body fails to properly announce the “particular matter” to be discussed in an executive session, the recording of that closed-door meeting becomes a public record.
The Colorado Supreme Court is examining whether a newspaper is considered a “citizen” and therefore entitled to attorney fees when prevailing in open meetings lawsuits.
Denying a Pagosa Springs lawyer legal standing to sue a school district because he doesn’t live within its boundaries “would drastically and substantively alter the protections” of the Colorado Open Meetings Law, not only for him, “but for all persons,” the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition and the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado say in a court filing.
A Pagosa Springs lawyer who routinely sues school boards around the state for violations of the open meetings law is defending his role as a “private attorney general” in a case now before Colorado’s second-highest court.
Several key rulings in 2023 showed why courts matter so much for enforcing and interpreting Colorado’s open government laws.
In a victory for the Aurora Sentinel, the Colorado Court of Appeals reversed a district court ruling and ordered Aurora to publicly release the recording of an executive session in which city council members ended censure proceedings against a fellow councilor.
Concerned the measure would “act as an impediment to legitimate challenges to open meetings,” Gov. Jared Polis vetoed a heavily amended bill that would have barred pro se litigants who sue over executive sessions from collecting legal fees if they prevailed in court.
A district court judge made “egregious” errors last year in deciding that Colorado’s Sunshine Law did not require members of an elected town board to discuss the censure of a fellow board member in an open meeting, the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition contends in a brief submitted to the Court of Appeals.
Despite a looming inflationary increase in fees, state lawmakers in the 2023 legislative session never addressed the often-high cost of obtaining public records in Colorado but did vote to eliminate some nagging obstacles for users of the Colorado Open Records Act.
Movimiento Poder, a grassroots advocacy organization of Denver parents and students, asked to join in a lawsuit six news organizations filed against Denver Public Schools last week seeking the recording of a five-hour board of education executive session held the day after a shooting at East High School.
