Last year, majority Democrats in the legislature voted to exempt themselves from large portions of our beloved Open Meetings Law because, as Mel Brooks famously said, “It’s good to be the king.”
It took them no time to exploit this new power to operate in the dark. For the first time in half-century, starting at the special session on property taxes, reporters were not allowed in Democrat caucus meetings. The negotiating was done behind closed doors and rubber stamped when they met in public view.
Fast-forward to last week, while voting down a bill to let the sun shine again in the state capitol, freshman state Rep. Chad Clifford indignantly proclaimed his legislature is, “as open as it can be.”
“As open as it can be”? That’s right up there with, “If you like your health care plan you can keep it…” “I did not have sexual relations with that woman…” and “I am not a crook.”
Exempting themselves from open meetings and putting caucusing and negotiating bills behind closed doors seems the opposite of “open.” But simpletons like me are easily confused.
Could it get worse? How about effectively taking governmental records that are lawfully open to public inspection and putting them out of reach of reporters and citizens?
Sparking a transparency movement
This is a tale of two conflicting bills on transparency. Spoiler alert: The bill that makes it worse is on its way to becoming a law. The bill that would hold our government more accountable was slaughtered in its first committee.
None of this is a surprise. All of this is an insult.
I’ve mentioned previously, the legislature’s hubris in exempting itself from transparency sparked a countermovement unlike anything I’ve seen in 35 years of political work. Independence Institute, which I run, has become the meeting ground for a wickedly diverse coalition of about 50 groups, “team transparency”, coming together to force governments to let the sunshine back in.
This is the most unusual ideological gathering of forces since America, Europe and Russia joined together in World War II. When a coalition that includes Independence Institute, the League of Women Voters, Common Cause, the press and broadcasters’ associations and Jason Salzman of the progressive Colorado Times Recorder come together, is it a sign of the apocalypse? As said in “Ghostbusters,” “Real-wrath-of- God kind of stuff … dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!”
Or does it mean those in power have gone so far in hiding what they’re doing, they’ve unknowingly done the impossible. In the most polarized and divisive period any living American has seen, they’ve brought sworn political enemies, left and right, together for a shared goal. This is Nobel Prize stuff. Send them to Gaza.
Adding insult to injury
House Bill 1242, by state Sen. Byron Pelton and Rep. Lori Garcia Sander, was a product of this coalition. The bill would have repealed last year’s act of legislative arrogance, capped and standardized the costs of open record requests and set hard deadlines for Colorado governments to make requested material available.
On March 10, Rep. Garcia Sander passionately presented our bill to the House Committee on State Affairs, affectionately known as “the kill committee.”
And on a party-line vote, kill it they did. And the executioners stuck to their talking points: Pillaging the Open Meetings Law was needed so accidental meetings in the Capitol stairwells weren’t violations (which was never an issue).
To add insult to injury, this same committee of courageous heroes dutifully passed Senate Bill 77, which allows districts to stall open records requests potentially indefinitely. Not only does it greatly increase costs to get public records, but it also lets districts legally say, “oh, the person who could get that record is on maternity leave, come back in a year, and then, well, maybe.”
In a brazen attempt to suck up to the legacy press, the bill treats requests from “mass media” to faster and better access than we poor schlubs, like citizens, activists and bloggers. Who might they be trying to butter up?
When Gov. Jared Polis unfortunately signed the bill exempting lawmakers from open meetings, he said it was just the legislature making its own rules. But if he signs Senate Bill 77, he will be putting more than 5,000 governments out of reach from the people who hold them accountable.
Maybe he wants a Nixon-like legacy.
Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.
