Colorado residents are fortunate; this is a place with a lot of sunshine.
The sunshine that makes Colorado a good place to live comes from the state’s open government and records laws that are built upon a simple idea. Everything that every government in the state does is open to the scrutiny of the public and the press. This week, newspapers all across the country are asking readers to understand the importance of open-government laws, and ask elected officials to respect and strengthen them.
In Colorado, the burden to keep information and meetings secret falls upon the government. By design, the onus does not fall upon the public to get records or access to meetings. It keeps Colorado the sunny, accountable, remarkable place it is. That doesn’t mean the public’s interest isn’t jeopardized by cloudy days of government transparency created by both unscrupulous or misguided public officials. There have been cloudy days in Aurora, and not so long ago. In September 2010, Aurora city lawmakers began the last part of a search for a city manager, seriously mishandling final interviews and disclosure of information about who was likely to become the most important employee in a city of 335,000 people.
City council members said in 2010 that the prospective city mangers they flew in and interviewed in secret at the Doubletree Hotel garnered them the “personnel” exemption to the state’s open-meeting law. It did not.
In addition, the city narrowed its field of candidates to five. By doing so, they were able to avoid revealing the identity of any of the candidates, as required under state law. Even though statute makes it clear that cities must give out the names of finalists for executive positions, state lawmakers defined “finalists” as the top three candidates. Since Aurora had chosen five finalists, they were able to do an end-run around the law.
It was a cheap, shady trick that even the candidates questioned because it put them in a bad light. City lawmakers at the time made no bones about searching for ways to skirt Colorado’s vital open government laws. They unanimously said that it was important to hide the identities of the finalists to protect their current positions.
It was hogwash. City managers of cities the size of Aurora are a relatively rare breed, and good ones are a hot commodity. Aurora has had numerous top executives become finalists for other city’s management positions. Recently, Police Chief Dan Oates was courted by San Jose, Calif., for that top police job. How do we know? We read it in the San Jose papers. It’s a badge of honor for a city to have its top officials sought after, and par for the course.
More importantly, the Aurora City Council’s position made no sense. Council members said they skirted state law in order to protect the identity of those five finalists because it was so important to protect the current jobs and lives of applicants. Aurora’s elected leaders believe that the comfort and convenience of potential city managers is more important than the public’s right to be part of this process. That’s not good government. And that’s not what the law says.
Since then, Aurora has a new mayor who pushes sensitive and controversial issues into the public forum and out of secret meetings. And all Aurora residents benefit from that. But a valuable part of our democracy is its dynamic nature, and it’s a danger. The next city council may not be so forthcoming, and so it’s vital that Colorado protect and strengthen superior open government laws to prevent another episode like that from 2010. It’s time to shore up state sunshine laws and close loopholes so that in the future, Aurora can stay on the path of doing not only the right thing, but the lawful thing, too.