May 07, 2009 11:02 PM UTC

Ethics Commission, Heal Thyself?

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• by: Colorado Pols

From the Colorado Independent:

The Colorado Independent on Tuesday asked the state’s top ethics panel to turn over recordings of more than a dozen secret meetings held this year – including closed sessions where a member of the panel reported deliberating on an ethics complaint filed against former Secretary of State Mike Coffman, who won election to Congress last fall – charging the panel with violating the state’s Open Meetings Law…

In all, the ethics panel – established by voters in 2006 by the adoption of Amendment 41, touted as a measure to increase government accountability and transparency – has spent nearly 85 percent of its time meeting in secret this year to discuss complaints filed with the commission and requests for rulings on the conduct of public officials and government employees.

The commission has met behind closed doors for 37 hours, 35 minutes, and in open session for only 6 hours, 45 minutes since the start of the year, according to a Colorado Independent analysis of the commission’s official minutes, agendas and meeting notices. The figures don’t include the commission’s most recent meeting on April 21 because minutes weren’t yet available for that meeting, which included a closed-door executive session on its agenda…

On 14 occasions – including two secret meetings held by telephone conference calls – the ethics panel barred the public from hearing it formulate decisions on ethical questions, only to emerge with rulings ready to be adopted by commissioners in unanimous, formal public votes. State courts have ruled that merely voting in public on matters decided in secret amounts to “rubber-stamping” and is no defense against charges a public body violated Open Meetings Law, said Steve Zansberg, a Denver attorney who specializes in First Amendment law.