Gov. Bill Ritter has talked a good bit about creating a government that is transparent and isn’t self-serving.
Unfortunately, it’s all talk.
Instead of embracing an open government, the governor is keeping secret how he conducts the people’s business.
It’s past time, governor, to make good on your promises of transparency.
On Monday, The Denver Post sued Ritter, asking a judge to compel the release of records for a personal cellphone the governor uses to conduct official state business.
It’s a shame that it had to come to a lawsuit, but the governor has stubbornly flouted public-records laws.
Ritter contends the phone is his personal phone and not subject to public-records laws.
That would be acceptable logic if he had not used his personal phone to conduct state business. But he has — and it’s incumbent upon him to do right by the law and release the records of phone calls pertaining to the people’s business.
As a lawyer and longtime district attorney, Ritter knows the law and should have more respect for its history and purpose.
Instead, he continues to flout open-records laws by patching together a flimsy argument that releasing such records would further erode “the zone of public employees’ privacy.” That is an affront to public- records laws and Colorado citizens.
Not releasing the records also has the potential to set a dangerous precedent by allowing government to create an unacceptable loophole in our open-records laws. The take-home message for public officials would be this: If you want to conduct business under the radar of public disclosure, just use your personal phone.
That certainly fits with neither the letter nor the intent of Colorado’s public-records laws, which were created so that the public could know what their government is up to.
In his 2007 inaugural speech, Ritter talked about setting aside politics and building an efficient government, one “that serves the people and isn’t self-serving.”
In his State of the State speech in January, Ritter talked about making the state budget process open and transparent. It is, we think, a laudable goal. If Coloradans can see how and what you’re doing with their tax money, it stands to reason they’ll have more confidence in the process.
The same logic applies to the nuts and bolts of how the governor conducts state business.
Who he calls and who calls him are important markers of the daily agenda of state business.
Choosing to use a personal cellphone does not exempt Ritter from complying with the law.
The governor should drop his objections, be straight with Colorado citizens, and release the records.
What’s he hiding?
