The Estes Valley Voice has sued the Estes Valley Fire Protection District Board of Directors, alleging that the board breached Colorado’s Sunshine Laws by selecting a new fire chief in a private meeting.
At the heart of the lawsuit is the Voice’s claim that the board’s decision to hire Fire Chief Paul Capo was made in a closed session, violating Colorado’s Open Records Act and Open Meetings Law – laws designed to ensure government transparency and accountability. The Voice filed the lawsuit in Larimer County District Court to enforce open-government practices in the EVFPD’s decision-making.
The EVFPD, a special district under Colorado law, provides fire protection and emergency services to Estes Park and surrounding unincorporated areas. Governed by a board responsible for significant policy decisions, including the selection of a fire chief, the EVFPD relies on local taxes for its funding. The Estes Valley Voice claims the board breached both CORA and COML by finalizing Capo’s hiring in an executive session on Oct. 9 without public involvement.
“This isn’t about who was chosen,” explained Patti Brown, editor and publisher of the Voice. “The Estes Valley Voice believes the public’s business needs to be done in public. That’s why we have the Colorado Open Records Act, to protect the public’s business.”
According to the lawsuit, board members discussed Capo’s selection privately during an executive session, only later ratifying the decision in a public meeting without further public discussion.
Brown criticized that process, stating, “Sunshine Laws are safeguards that the public’s businesses must be conducted openly and not in secret. Elected officials have to guard against secrecy.”
The Voice’s petition asks the court to conduct an in camera review of a recording made of the Oct. 9 executive session. If that request is granted, the judge would privately review the recording to verify whether any prohibited decision-making took place behind closed doors. Denver attorney Steven D. Zansberg, who represents the Voice, explained, “The public has a statutory right to review the portions of an executive session recording during which a public body discussed matters or made decisions that they are prohibited from doing.”
The lawsuit is supported by documents detailing the sequence of activities that led to the EVFPD Board’s choice of a new fire chief. According to the minutes of the Oct. 9 executive session, board members held several closed sessions to evaluate fire chief candidates, eventually forming a Negotiations Committee to enter discussions with “Candidate A,” later publicly identified as Capo.
Although Capo’s role was confirmed in a later public meeting of the EVFPD Board, the Voice, joined in the case as a petitioner by Brown, argues the board had already decided his selection during the closed session, circumventing COML’s transparency requirements.
The petitioners also submitted as evidence an Oct. 10 email from Ryan Bross, EVFPD board chair to Brown, in which Bross acknowledged that board members had reached a “consensus around making an offer” to Capo during the executive session. In a separate response to Brown’s CORA request for the recording, Bross stated that “meeting protocol was determined by District legal counsel,” a response that the Voice argues fails to meet transparency standards.
Additionally, Joan Hooper, a consultant present at the Oct. 9 meeting, publicly confirmed in a comment posted on Oct. 13 to an article published by the Voice that “the decision to offer Capo the job was made in executive session,” further supporting the Voice’s allegations.
The Voice’s lawsuit hinges on a set of statutes known as Colorado’s Sunshine Laws, which aim to prevent public bodies from taking policy decisions in private. Over the years, the Colorado Supreme Court has held that these laws require public entities to set public policy, including personnel decisions with broad impact, in open sessions.
“This lawsuit is about holding our public institutions accountable,” Brown said. “It is against the law to make decisions in executive session. That is not how public, taxpayer-supported institutions should conduct themselves.”
According to Zansberg, the in camera review “will likely determine the dispute’s outcome.” If successful, the Voice could secure public access to the recording and recover litigation costs and attorney’s fees, a measure intended to reinforce legal accountability for public entities.
Brown noted growing community concerns about transparency and potential intimidation within the EVFPD leadership, underscoring the Voice’s commitment to public oversight. She explained that several firefighters privately approached the Voice with worries about transparency and described a culture of intimidation within the district’s leadership.
The EVFPD has faced leadership challenges in recent years, including the departures of former fire chiefs David Wolf and Rick Lasky. As of press time, a judge has not scheduled a hearing in the case.
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