“House Democratic leadership is committed to open and transparent government and ensuring a fair and public process for policymaking. The lawsuit names as defendants House Speaker Julie McCluskie, House Majority Leader Monica Duran, House Minority Leader Mike Lynch, and both the Democratic and Republican caucuses as a whole. The suit, filed in Denver, asks the court to ban state lawmakers from continuing the alleged practices, and asks that the defendants pay reasonable attorneys fees for the plaintiffs. The suit argues that Epps and Marshall were put in the impossible position of either breaking the law by participating in the off-the-books planning sessions - or being left out of “critical discussions.” Referring to their allegations, the lawsuit states: “Plaintiffs were assured, separately and repeatedly, by House Leadership that these unlawful practices would be properly addressed. And when there is a meeting with a quorum of members - such as the alleged committee planning sessions - the public must be given “full and timely notice.” Public bodies also must produce and share meeting minutes. The Colorado Open Meetings Law, which governs public bodies including the House itself, states that any meeting of “two or more members of any state public body at which any public business is discussed” must be open to the public. The complaint also claims, “on information and belief”, that Republicans held similar committee planning meetings. Defendants did not promptly record meeting minutes and did not make minutes available to the public,” the complaint alleges. Defendants directed legislative aides to omit or disguise these mandatory meetings from Representatives’ calendars.

These meetings were never publicly noticed. “All Democratic Committee members were expected to attend these meetings which included presentations by bill sponsors, question and answer period, and discussion of members’ expected votes. The complaint describes several kinds of unofficial meetings that should be open to the public, but aren’t, including frequent planning sessions where Democrats allegedly mapped out how committee meetings would play out, with enough committee members present to constitute a quorum - which could allow them to decide the fate of bills before the committee hearing itself. It was long in coming,” he said, comparing the suit to “a loving intervention with an alcoholic that just can't change and won't change.” Legal action was not Marshall's first choice, he said instead, he pushed for an interim committee to meet over the summer to suggest revisions to open meetings laws and come up with a resolution.īut when that idea failed to gain traction, he and Epps decided to file a complaint. “As the law is written right now, it's illegal what we were doing.” Marshall said it’s especially common for lawmakers to send disappearing messages to each other during committee hearings when members of the public are at the Capitol to testify on bills. It also targets the widespread use of “ephemeral” messaging apps like Signal, which lawmakers can use to send self-deleting messages to their colleagues. Bob Marshall, both Democrats, have filed a lawsuit against their own leadership to stop what they allege is a culture of secret meetings and backchannel discussions among both Democrats and Republicans at the Colorado State Capitol.Ī court complaint filed on Friday alleges that members of both parties routinely break the law by having substantial conversations about public policy without providing required notice to the public. Data can be used to build or improve user experience, systems and software.Rep. Insights about audiences who saw the ads and content can be derived. Ad and content performance can be measured.

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