Aug. 13, 2015To city attorney Tony Lettunich and members of the Steamboat Springs City Council:I am writing to respectfully inform you of our view that certain portions of a recent meeting were in violation of the Colorado Open Meetings Law. This opinion is supportedby attorney Christopher Beall, who specializes in First Amendment law and represents members of the Colorado Press Association, including the Steamboat Pilot & Today. In posting and announcing the executive session held Aug. 4, one of the matters to be discussed behind closed doors was listed only as personnel matter.We understand, however, that the closed discussion concerned the work performance of City Manager Deb Hinksvark.There was no public notice or announcement of any kind that her work performance was the particular matter to be discussed.Colorado Open Meetings Law requires the City Council to not only cite the statutory basis for holding an executive session, in this case personnel matters C.R.S. 24-6-402(4)(f)(I)), but also the particular matter to be discussed in as much detail as possiblewithout undermining the purpose for which the executive session is authorized. The notice should have identifed the city manager as the matter to be discussed under personnel issues.It appears the same omission has been made in your posting for the Aug. 14 executive session. We know the purpose of that meeting is to discuss a possible separation agreement with the city manager.We believe the law requires that this fact should be stated clearly in the public notice.The failure to make such an announcement prior to adjourning to the executive session would, we believe, amount to a violation of the law. In addition to the improper procedure for convening the Aug. 4 executive session meeting, it is our opinion that the council may have violated the statute otherwise during that session by taking action behind closed doors. Unless the city attorney acted on his own to begin negotiating a separation agreement with the city manager, it appears he received direction from the council during the closed session. Even if the councils actiondid not take the form of a formal vote, any adoption by the city council of a proposed policy or position to direct the city attorney to begin negotiating with the city manager theday after the closed session would have been a violation of the statute because such action was taken behind closed doors.Under COML, no adoption of a proposed policy or position may be taken by a councilin an executive session. To do so is a violation of the Colorado Open Meetings Law.I will remind you of this newspapers record when it comes to litigating open meetings violations of this very nature. In 2007, the Steamboat Pilot & Today sued the Steamboat Springs School District over insufcient information provided in an executive session posting for a Jan. 8, 2007, meeting.The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that the school board violated the states Open Meetings Law by not properly announcing the purpose of its executive session. The ruling noted that the School Boards notice was defcient in failing to state that the executive session would concern the release of survey results. In addition, the notice was defcient in not identifying that the personnel matter was specifcally the performance of the superintendent. As a result of the ruling and the subsequent settlement, the district paid $50,000 of the newspapers attorney fees and also released the transcripts from the illegal meeting. Here is a link to an article concerning this lawsuithttp://www.steamboattoday.com/news/2009/may/19/school_board_formally_settles_newspaper_lawsuit/In closing, the purpose of the letter is to inform you of this newspapers position on the councils recent actions related to posting executive sessions and the timely release of information about actions taken in those meetings. We do not tolerate public business being conducted secretly, and as this communitys newspaper, we will continue to fght for openness and transparency to ensure the Colorado Open Meetings Law is upheld byour elected ofcials. We respectfully ask you to begin posting and conducting executive sessions in accordance with state law.Respectfully,Lisa SchlichtmanEditor, Steamboat Pilot & Todaycc. Suzanne Schlicht, Publisher of the Steamboat Pilot & TodayChristopher P. Beall, attorney at law