On December 30, 2024, right prior to the legally-mandated deadline, the Executive Committee of the Colorado legislature held a hearing on Senate Bill 24-157. If you don’t know it by number, this is the bill that, among other things, allows the legislature to avoid certain provisions of the Colorado Open Meetings Law, which privileges them in ways that almost no other governmental entity in this state enjoys. This privilege extends beyond just legislative business too. Majority Democrats have already made use of the law to hold two closed caucus meetings.
The crowning turd
I attended the hearing in person and, when my turn to speak came, I referred to this particular bill as the “crowning turd” on the pile of anti-transparency actions we’ve seen from our legislature over the last few years, because that’s exactly what it is.
One of the most important jobs that any citizen can do is to closely follow their government and hold their elected officials accountable. I wonder whether the sponsors of the bill, the Democrats who voted for it (not one single Republican did), or Governor Polis understand exactly what they are saying to voters when they made this law.
They are saying in essence that they don’t want us to be able to make informed decisions about their job performance. Can you imagine what it would be like at your work if employees could, without consequence, hide things about their job performance from their boss?
There is a legal concept called forbearance. Roughly it means that you have the legal option to do something, but choose to not. You might have the legal right to sue someone if they don’t pay you by the end of the month, but you could choose to hold off as well.
The reason I mention this is because I can think of no better case for exercising forbearance than with SB-157. Yes, it is the law, but the thing is, there’s no requirement that anyone hide behind the law.
I’d further say say any politicians, or party opting to exercise the secrecy provided by this law give a good indication of what they really think about transparency. Actions, not speeches, always provide us with a look at what is truly in someone’s heart.
If the purpose of Sb-157 is “modernization” of open meetings law, as Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie has it, then why not be as open as possible in any of the other myriad ways that they can?
Dems keep doors closed
I wanted to check in with leadership for both parties in the House and Senate on that score, to see if they plan to open their caucus meetings for the current legislative session.
Senator Byron Pelton, newly-elected Republican Senate Caucus chair, said via text that, “The Senate Republican caucus has always believed in transparency and open meetings. We will continue to have open caucus meetings, like we’ve always had during the session as long as I’ve been in the Senate, that will not change.”
Nathan Fisher, chief of staff for House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese, told me in a phone call that House Republicans plan to continue what they have done in the past and have their caucus meetings open to the public and media.
Democratic Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie said in an email that (and here I added the links that she sent me), “As I discussed during the hearing, we have posted more than 80 meetings on our website, minutes included, over this past year. You can find these postings here. Here is the live link.”
In response to my followup question to make sure I understood whether or not they would open their caucus meetings, Speaker McCluskie said, “Yes, I anticipate we will be discussing public business at our caucus meetings, so these items will be identified on our agenda and we will be posting these meetings on the website. We will take minutes of these meetings and posting them in the same place. [The “website” here referring to the links above]”
As of this writing, I have not heard back from Democratic Senate President James Coleman.
There is all too often a gap between what gets said and what gets done, so pay attention to what they do here, as it will be by their actions that you know who you have representing you.
Cory Gaines is a regular contributor to Complete Colorado. He lives in Sterling on Colorado’s Eastern Plains and also writes at the Colorado Accountability Project substack.
