Face the State

Retreats from hard-line secrecy demand
Face the State Staff Report

DENVER - Gov. Bill Ritter filed a motion Friday in Denver District Court, backing down slightly from his decision to withhold a document that could contain key information regarding the government’s plans to increase union mandates on Colorado's state employees.

Following a Face the State open records request, Ritter had been forced earlier this month to reveal plans within his office to establish "state employee partnerships" with major labor unions. The revelations caused a public uproar as critics questioned the secretive nature of the negotiations.

Among key documents obtained in the request was an email from SEIU lobbyists to Ritter establish secrecy as a primary strategy in ensuring legislative success for a collective bargaining bill. SEIU wanted to ensure that “political opponents don’t have an opportunity to react to the proposal long before it is ready for prime time.”

The SEIU also produced a legal memo for Ritter's office, but when Ritter released the memo he withheld part of the union memo at the request of a Democrat legislator. Ritter only produced the first eight pages of a memo from Steven Ury, a lawyer for the Service Employees International Union. The remainder of the document was redacted.

Although the memo was sent to Trey Rogers, Ritter’s legal counsel, Rep. Rosemary Marshall, D-Denver, wrote Ritter requesting the redaction, citing certain statutory exemptions to the Colorado Open Records Act. She defended her secrecy, saying the government is justified in keeping the memo’s contents secret because they include portions of a draft bill she had created with the help of legislative staff.

While Marshall is listed as an “interested party” in Friday’s legal action, Scott Gessler, the Denver attorney representing Face the State, explains that Ritter is the party responsible for keeping the documents secret. “While CORA generally does provide an exclusion for bills being drafted for legislators, Rep. Marshall lost that privilege by sharing the memo with the union, which then incorporated it into a memo and sent it to the governor.”

Face the State’s Managing Editor, Brad Jones, believes Ritter has been too secretive already. “Ritter says he has no dog in this fight and merely wants the court to help him do the right thing. We're glad that he backed down from his stance that he would never release the whole memo, but his office should err on the side of transparency, not back-room secrecy.”

Ritter's filing with the court came two days after Face the State again demanded disclosure, and notifying the governor of it intent to file a lawsuit on the matter. Ritter’s motion pre-empted that process.

Ritter's case, 07CV9160, was filed in Denver District Court.