DENVER (AP) — Two Colorado state Democratic lawmakers allege their colleagues repeatedly violated the state’s open meeting law by meeting to discuss official business outside of public view and by ordering their aides to “omit or disguise” certain meetings from representatives’ schedules, according to a lawsuit filed against their own caucus.
The lawsuit, filed Friday evening, also alleges that Democratic and Republican lawmakers used Signal, a communications app where messages can be set to automatically disappear, in violation of the state’s open meeting law and the law. in public records.
Democratic Representatives Elisabeth Epps and Bob Marshall have filed a lawsuit against House of Representatives leaders and the Democratic and Republican caucuses.
Democratic House Speaker’s Representative Julie McCluskie and Republican Deputy House Chief of Staff Roger Hudson, speaking on behalf of their respective caucuses accused of wrongdoing, said in separate statements that they were both committed to government transparency.
“We are still reviewing the complaint in its entirety and we support our caucus,” McCluskie said in the statement co-signed by the Democratic Majority Leader Rep. Monica Duran.
While Hudson wrote that “this lawsuit is what Coloradians hate about politics,” he also asserted that “Republicans continue to believe that the people of Colorado deserve access to their government through comprehensive open meetings and open archive laws”.
The complaint says that under Colorado law, when two or more lawmakers meet and discuss official business, it must be open to the public. If a quorum is reached, the public must be notified in advance and the minutes of the meeting must be recorded and accessible to the public.
The lawsuit alleges that Colorado lawmakers met sometimes twice a week to discuss public business, such as pending legislation, but failed to follow any of the open meeting requirements outlined by state law, thus shading the deliberations of Colorado residents.
Likewise, the lawsuit alleges that Signal’s use was widespread and included discussions among lawmakers while sitting in committee or in the House — described in the complaint as “meetings within meetings.” Because the messages would self-destruct, they were not publicly available under Colorado public records law, the plaintiffs said.
“I don’t blame our leadership at all,” Marshall said, acknowledging that closed-door meeting practices are longstanding. “There is no moral fault in any of this.”
But open meeting and public records laws, he continued, are necessary for transparency “so people know what’s going on and have confidence in their government. This weird stuff doesn’t happen behind closed doors. closed”.
Marshall said the law as written is difficult to follow literally and he hopes it will be rewritten.
Marshall and Epps said they repeatedly raised their concerns with leaders during the four-month legislative session, but nothing changed. Epps boycotted caucus meetings and Marshall went to the well on the final night of the session to warn he would take action after leaders failed to follow through on their assurances to deal with the situation.
Marshall said “it was a huge swamp they had inherited” and the assurances offered were “just basically scenting it rather than draining it”.
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Bedayn is a member of the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places reporters in local newsrooms to report on underreported issues.