[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Does the Portland Trip Violate the State Open Meeting Law.

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Carr, Thomas

Some people may be concerned about whether the City Council's planned trip to Portland would violate the Colorado Open Meetings Law.  It does not.  The Colorado Open Meetings Law does include a very broad definition of what constitutes a meeting.  The Supreme Court has, however, construed a meeting to be limited to meetings that involve the policy-making function of the legislative body.   The leading case involved a conservancy district's challenge to a meeting held by Costilla County Commissioners.   The Court held that because the meeting was merely to gather information and not directly related to policy-making, it was not subject to the Open Meetings Act.  The court reasoned as follows:

"If we were to adopt the District's position, the effect would be to make an already broad statute virtually limitless. As the trial court cautioned, if a meeting that is unconnected to the policy-making function of a local public body were subject to the requirements of the OML, then local public bodies would be required to give notice whenever a quorum of their members attend meetings on any public issue, such as the Governor's State of the State address, an educational seminar, a debate on a House or Senate bill, or on any matter that might influence local policy. The OML does not impose such a requirement on local public bodies. Instead, the OML requires a local public body to provide notice of any meeting held or attended by a quorum of the public body when that meeting concerns matters that are related to the policy-making function of that body."  Board of County  Comm'rs, Costilla County v. Costilla County Conservancy Dist., 88 P.3d 1188, 1195-96 (Colo. 2004)

In Boulder we tend to err on the side of openness and do not rely upon the policy-making limitation very often.  Nevertheless, the trip to Portland is an important educational opportunity for council members and would be included in the list of things that the Supreme Court has said are excluded from the Open Meetings Law.