On April 16, Durango attorney Matt Roane — formerly a resident of Pagosa Springs — was awarded $9,685.50 in attorney fees by Sixth Judicial District Judge Jeffrey Wilson, related to a lawsuit filed to obtain a recording of an Archuleta Board of County Commissioners executive session. Mr. Roane had claimed that the meeting had violated Colorado Open Meetings law.
This was not Mr. Roane’s first attempt to remind local Pagosa governments to abide by Colorado’s Open Meetings law. In fact, he and I collaborated on two previous lawsuits concerning alleged open meetings violations, one filed against the Archuleta BOCC and one filed against the Pagosa Springs Town Council.
In this particular case, Judge Wilson ruled on November 3, 2019 that the Archuleta BOCC had in fact violated the Colorado Open Meetings law, and that part of the meeting’s audio recording was properly a public document according to the Colorado Open Records Act.
The BOCC’s executive session, held on the morning of May 6, 2019, had involved Commissioners Ronnie Maez, Steve Wadley and Alvin Schaaf; County Attorney Todd Weaver; County Administrator Scott Wall; and Deputy Clerk & Recorder Tomi Bliss. (Commissioner Schaaf attended via conference call.) Commissioner Wadley initiated the session by making the motion to enter executive session “for the purposes of receiving legal advice on the 1033 investigation,” and Chairman Maez announced that no decisions would be made in the executive session… and that motions might be entertained after the session. The doors were subsequently closed to the public.
All government boards in Colorado, whether elected or appointed, are required to honor the Colorado Open Meetings requirement that government decisions be made in open public meetings.
The ensuing BOCC discussion concerned the lack of transparency and accountability exhibited by the Archuleta County Sheriff in connection with the federal 1033 program, which transfers excess US military equipment to civilian law enforcement agencies. Over the past several years, the County Sheriff’s Office had obtained a rather impressive amount of surplus military equipment through that program… somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.6 million worth of equipment… and much of the equipment had subsequently disappeared. Or so it seemed.
Following the BOCC’s May 6 executive session, Chairman Maez reiterated that “no decisions” had been made. Two days later, however, the County issued a press release listing five specific actions the BOCC would be implementing, to address the 1033 controversy.
The release of this policy statement, without any open public adoption of said policies, suggested to attorney Roane that decisions had in fact been made — improperly — during the executive session. He requested a copy of the meeting audio recording based on that belief, but his request was refused. The County claimed that the BOCC had not made any decisions behind closed doors. The BOCC had merely ‘given direction’ to staff. But the May 8 press release from the BOCC indicated that the BOCC had committed itself to a specific course of action — which, practically speaking, could have been decided only during the closed door meeting…
Following Judge Wilson’s ruling, the County did release the audio recording of that portion of the meeting defined by the court as public record. And as allowed by the Colorado Open Records Act, attorney Roane appealed to the court to have the losing party — Archuleta County — reimburse his fees and costs.
Archuleta County did not dispute the idea that Mr. Roane was entitled to an award, but argued that, because the November 3 ruling ordered only a portion of the executive session recording released, attorney Roane was entitled to only a portion of his fees.
Judge Wilson rejected the County’s argument.
Mr. Roane offered the following comments, including thoughts about the role of the free press in holding governments to their own established rules.
I’ve attached a copy of Judge Wilson’s recent order in the executive session/1033 weapons case. It might be on general interest because it awarded me, as a pro se attorney, fees for the time I expended in the case. This is the first such award I’m aware of. I hope it will encourage other attorneys to similarly challenge local public bodies who violate open meeting laws. Given the economic upheaval in the news reporting industry, journalists can no longer solely bear the burden of being a watchdog for the people.
As you can imagine, the County has been quick, consistent, and public in their criticism of my actions. To them I say, quit breaking the law and I’m happily out of business tomorrow.