Golden – The Jefferson County Board of Commissioners has been accused of violating the state’s open-meetings law when it held an employee meeting to discuss budget cuts.
Landmark Community Newspapers of Colorado, which publishes the Columbine Courier and the Canyon Courier, contends the board failed to post advance public notice of a July 5 meeting.
All three Jeffco commissioners – Jim Congrove, Kathy Hartman and Kevin McCasky – attended the meeting, according to a complaint filed late Wednesday.
The Colorado Open Meetings Law prohibits a public board from having a quorum of members present when “public business is discussed or at which any formal action may be taken” without 24-hour notice.
Congrove and Hartman said later that the board violated the law in attending the meeting and that it should have been posted.
McCasky maintained the session didn’t fall under the open- meetings law because it was an employee meeting where information was being shared and there was no discussion about a pending public-policy decision.
“Our attorneys say otherwise,” said Courier editor Doug Bell. “All we’re asking is that the commissioners adhere to state law.”
Bell said this isn’t the first instance of the Jeffco board conducting public business without adequate notice.
“If this happened once or was inadvertent, that is one thing,” Bell said. “The commissioners need to recognize what the law is and assure us they will follow it.”
County spokeswoman Kathryn Heider said five meetings were set up for employees “to come find out more about how the (budget) cuts would affect them. It was an opportunity for Jim Moore, the county administrator, to answer questions.”
Heider said the meetings “weren’t set up as a commissioners meeting. … We had no idea that they (the commissioners) all would be there.”
Notice of the sessions was posted on the county’s intranet, which is available to 3,000 Jeffco employees, Heider said.
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
