Off-highway vehicle enthusiasts are steaming after the State Parks Department last week barred one of their leaders from a meeting to discuss the fate of the recreational trails that crisscross Colorado’s public lands, potentially violating state open meetings laws.
Lobbyist and four-wheeler advocate Jerry Abboud said that even though multiple members of the State Parks board and one of its subcommittees on trails were present at the June 7 meeting, he and another advocate were told they could not to attend.
State open meetings laws say the public must be admitted to any meeting “of two or more members of any state public body at which any public business is discussed or at which any formal action may be take.”
The meeting, which included two members each from the parks board members and trails committee, was called to try to find common ground between off-highway vehicle recreationists and environmental groups who want them to pay more for wilderness restoration projects, said State Parks Director Dean Winstanley.
“We thought that having a limited number of negotiators was the best way to move their discussion along,” Winstanley said. “If there was a technical violation, it was completely inadvertent, and we will ensure compliance with all requirements of the open meetings law in the future.”
He declined to say who from within the department decided to close the meeting to the public.
In a letter Winstanley assured off-road enthusiast groups that no more than one member of the parks board and one member of the trails committee would attend the next roundtable June 28.
For more than a year, off-highway riders and environmentalists have been warring over the increasing number of miles cut through state parks and wilderness areas for motorized, recreational trails.
A coalition of environmental groups, hunters, anglers and law enforcement groups are asking that part of the $25.25 fee off-highway riders pay each year go to environmental restoration and projects other than building new trails.
The meeting June 7 was a precursor to a decision the State Parks board is scheduled to make in July on how fee money is distributed and who controls how it’s spent.
Abboud said that he didn’t plan to participate in the meeting on the highly controversial topic, which has drawn 100-plus people when discussed at public meetings.
“This was an important enough issue that I really feel like the public should have had the opportunity to attend,” said Abboud, who represents the Colorado Off-Highway Vehicle Coalition. “There was some important policy discussions that took place.”
The coalition filed a complaint with the Department of Natural Resources late last week.
Abboud did not attempt to attend the meeting after he was told not to come, but an environmental advocate was turned away, according to Winstanley.
At the meeting were Winstanley, Parks Board members Laurie Matthews and Jim Pribyl, Trails Committee members Gary Buffington and John Marriott, Department of Natural Resources Director Mike King and Trails Director Tom Morrissey, according to the agenda.
Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or jfender@denverpost.com.
