GLENWOOD SPRINGS— —Two Western Slope citizens groups have filed a lawsuit alleging the Garfield County commissioners violated Colorado’s Sunshine Law by meeting behind closed doors with industry representatives and other elected officials in Vernal, Utah, in March to draft oil shale policy.
The lawsuit was filed Monday in Garfield District Court by the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance (GVCA) and the Western Colorado Congress (WCC).
It asks a judge to rule that the commissioners violated the Colorado Open Meetings Law by convening in executive session as part of a March 27 meeting hosted by the Uintah County, Utah, commissioners.
A unified political statement regarding oil shale leasing on federal lands that was later approved unanimously by the Garfield commissioners and forwarded to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management should also be declared null and void, the lawsuit states.
“The county commissioners’ actions were illegal, and after months of public outcry they still have not responded to our complaints that the public was shut out of this discussion,” GVCA president Leslie Robinson told the Post Independent on Monday.
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