If you were not able to attend the workshop, the meeting was recorded and uploaded to You Tube. Click here to watch.
The public’s business must be done in public, it’s as simple as that. Yet, it took the Freedom of Information Act passage in 1966 to make it the law of the land.
If taxpayers are funding an organization, the meetings of its governing board where action is taken or discussed, are required to be noticed and open to the public.
This also applies to advisory boards, appointed by the governing board. That’s an overview of what was covered in the Estes Valley Voice Sunshine Law Workshop on Feb. 1, which was free and open to the public. The workshop was held in the boardroom in the Estes Park Town Hall.
Jeffrey A. Roberts, executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, was on hand to answer questions from the audience, which included representatives from various taxpayer-funded organizations in Estes Park, even the mayor of Loveland showed up to learn about the Colorado’s Open Records Act and the Colorado Open Meetings Law on Saturday. In all some More than 50 people registered for the workshop including a group from Teller County.
Most of the specific questions for Roberts were about executive sessions and how they need to be conducted under the law. “The law provides for certain circumstances when you can close the door,” Roberts said. “That has to be done in a pretty specific way. The idea of closing the door on the public is a pretty significant thing.”
The Estes Valley Voice filed a suit against the Estes Valley Fire Protection District because the special district board made the decision in October to hire the new fire chief in an executive session and the district refused to reveal what went into that decision when a CORA request was made.
EVV won that suit and as a result, the court required the EVFPD to post a redacted recording of the executive session on its website for the public record.
“Right before you go to Executive Session, it has to be announced to the public and you have to give them … some specific information about why you’re going into executive session, without ruining the point of why” the board needs to speak in private, Roberts said.
And then you have to take a vote” before going into this session, he said.
In addition, there are only specific topics that can be discussed in an executive session. One of these is property transactions, such as the purchase or sale of a property and competitive bidding if it would otherwise give an unfair bargaining advantage. Or, if a donor to a state university or college requests their donation to be private. If any of the board members has a personal interest in the transaction, that must be revealed to the public before going into the executive session.
Security arrangements or investigations, conferences with an attorney on specific legal matters, and negotiation strategy for acquiring or letting go of employees can be discussed without the public being present. But no action, including taking a vote, making a formal decision, or adopting a policy can be done in executive session. This applies to public bodies of three or more members, or a quorum of members, and it includes email communications.
Public meetings are also required to be publicly posted where anyone can find it (for the Town of Estes Park, that is on their website), at least 24 hours before the meeting is to be held. If the agenda includes something of high public interest, the item cannot be named something misleading.
CORA requires that public records be made available within three days of receiving the request, and last July it put a limit on how much an entity can charge for a research and retrieval fee; no more than $41.37 an hour after the first hour, which is required to be free. Copies can be made for $0.25 and there can be no charge to email an electronic file.
Emails, text messages, even “disappearing” messages, messages that can be programmed to self-destruct, are all subject to CORA’s law.
Information that cannot be released would be things like health records, personal information such as addresses and marriage licenses, and more.
Estes Park board members, potential or sitting, are encouraged to become familiar with the Colorado Open Meetings Act and the state’s open meetings law by visiting the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition’s website for more detailed information, including court decisions.