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colorado Get the 411 on Tom Bredehoft, publisher, The Flagler News. PAGE 3
Official publication of the Colorado Press Association / coloradopressassociation.com / Vol. LXXXVI, No. 4 April 2015
editorW
E want to MAKE the
CONVENTION
HELPBETTER and we need your
New survey seeks feedback on major changes to convention, annual contestStaff report
Are there too many categories in the awards contest? Should the annual convention occur at a different time of year? How do you feel about moving the convention to other cities in Colorado?
These are some questions two Colorado Press Association committees have been pondering, and they would like your input.
The CPA’s Convention and Education Com-mittee and the Contest Committee are partner-ing on a nine-question online survey focused on possible changes to the annual convention and contest.
Go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CPAChanges to take the survey, which will be up until March 30.
Time and placeShould the annual convention be held on a
different date and/or in another city? The CPA is under contract with the Westin
Hotel in Downtown Denver — where the convention has been held in recent years — through 2017. It would be cost prohibitive to break the contract prior to then.
“However, we may be able to change the date
of the convention at the Westin sooner,” said Jerry Raehal, CEO of the CPA.
Changing the date has come up several times, notably due to February weather.
“It’s a not-so-funny joke that you can tell when a major snow storm is coming because the CPA convention is upon us,” Raehal said. “Changing the timeframe could make it safer for people to travel to our keynote event.”
One reason the convention has been held in Denver in February was to have contact with legislators during the Legislative session. If the convention date is changed, there are plans to try to schedule a different event during the legislative session to ensure contact remains with legislators.
“Even if we cannot change the dates or the location of the convention for 2016, the time to start planning on such changes would be now, to give time to get bids and make plans for 2018,” Raehal said. “Or, if the membership wants to stay in Denver, we can focus our ef-forts on other planning options.”
Too many awards?When looking at the 2014 Better Newspaper
Contest, the contest committee was presented
with several concerns. For example, there were 99 categories that
did not register an entry. Another 172 people who submitted an entry received an award simply by entering due to a lack of competition in some categories.
And because so many awards were handed out, the awards ceremony took nearly three hours. Some members have complained that so many awards dilutes the honors’ value.
And while a recent survey about the conven-tion and contest said the majority of people thought the Awards Ceremony was “good” or “great,” even those who ranked the ceremony high stated the contest had too many awards
See SURVEY, Page 12
On the webTo take the nine-question survey, go to https://www.surveymon-key.com/r/CPAChanges. The sur-vey will be up until March 30.
Judicial records a no-go?Many on state judicial branch employees would be off-limits under proposed new rules
By Jeffrey A. RobertsCFOIC Executive Director
Public access to records on employees of the Colorado Judicial Branch would be substantially more limited than what’s available regarding other state government workers under proposed rules endorsed April 8 by a committee of the judiciary.
Because of two state court decisions, the judicial branch isn’t covered by the Colorado Open Re-cords Act — also known as CORA — and is setting its own regulations governing access to its administra-tive records. Several of the rules are in line with CORA, which covers the executive and legislative branches of government, but others deviate in significant ways.
CORA, for instance, narrowly defines those portions of a state employee’s personnel file that must be kept confidential. The exemp-tion includes only personal and private information such as home addresses, telephone numbers and financial data. All other information related to a public employee’s job performance generally is available if the public requests it.
By contrast, the rules adopted by the judicial branch’s Public Ac-cess Committee make only a few employee records open for public inspection: salary, dates of employ-ment, job title and description, the cover sheet of an evaluation and “the fact of a discipline.”
Under the new rules, if a judicial branch employee is investigated for wrongdoing, any internal files providing details of that investiga-tion would be unavailable.
That isn’t the case under CORA or the Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act — also called CCJRA — the statute that dictates the public release of criminal justice records.
For law enforcement officers, the Colorado Supreme Court in 2008 determined that internal affairs files can be made available for public inspection (and the CCJRA favors
See RECORDS, Page 12Photos by Thomas Cooper, Lightboximages.com
2 colorado editor April 2015
The Colorado Editor wants to hear from you. We’re on the lookout for news about your staff, publications and businesses for our all-new columns and features in the Colorado Editor – your monthly membership newspaper from Colorado Press Association.
What’s new in Colorado news?
Colorado Newspapers
In the News
Send us your “breaking news” on:• New Hires• Promotions• People Moving On• Anniversaries• Retirements• Contest or Staff Awards & Honors
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Send your news items of 150 words or fewer (photo also welcome) to Cheryl Ghrist – [email protected] – using subject line “Colorado Editor News.”
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Vol. LXXXVI, Issue 4 April 2015
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Beecher ThreattOuray County [email protected]
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Postal rate hike kicked backAs reported by Max Heath for the National
Newspaper Association (NNA): “Newspaper mailers still face uncertainty with 2015 postal rates, as the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) has now twice kicked back the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) request for new rates to go into effect April 26.” The service has to pro-vide 45-days’ notice before new rates occur. It would have needed final rates by March 12, but on March 18 the PRC indicated it still “wasn’t happy with the proposal for either periodicals or standard mail.” Heath noted that “final rates will not be known until the PRC is happy, un-less USPS decides to gamble on implementing new prices without the PRC blessing. That has happened in postal history, but usually ends up in the courts.”
USPS re-filed parts of its 2015 price case after certain sections were remanded (rejected and sent back for correction) by the PRC. Notable changes include Standard Mail Carrier Route Flats prices from slight increases in the 1-2 percent range in the original filing to de-creases in the 1-3 percent range, with one price, High-Density Plus minimum price, down 11.4 percent in the second filing for 300 or more walk-sequences pieces per route. “The changes occurred for several reasons, including PRC’s order to make presort discounts equal between for-profit and nonprofit rates,” reported Heath. “If these numbers stick, newspapers with shop-pers would enjoy lower costs.”
Colorado High School Press set to change its name
The Colorado High School Press Association (CHSPA) will become the Colorado Student Media Association effective July 1. The new name, which has been discussed over a number of years, was the result of a unanimous vote by the CHSPA executive board. Changes will include a new logo, website address and bylaws revisions, which will be voted on this spring. Members will be able to view and comment upon the proposed bylaws changes prior to a final vote.
In a press release, a CHSPA representative stated that the board hopes the changes will make “our soon-to-be 45-year-old organization even more accessible to Colorado secondary school media programs while more accurately identifying the current and future state of stu-dent publications, video broadcast and online news organizations.”
Facebook making plans to host media content
The New York Times recently reported that Facebook is in talks with media companies about hosting their content within the popular social media site. Users currently can click on a link that takes them to an external site on which content is hosted, but the new service would allow faster loading, especially on mobile devices. Also under discussion are ways for publishers to make revenue from advertis-ing running alongside hosted content, such as showing a single ad in a custom format within each hosted article.
Some professionals reportedly are consider-ing joining forces to negotiate deals that could
work for the industry as a whole. Other issues include whether monitored data on reader-ship would continue to be as easy to access as it is now. Organizations that might be initial partners for testing a new format include The New York Times, BuzzFeed and National Geographic.
Fairplay Flume makes staff writer official
After two years of freelance work for the Park County Republican & Fairplay Flume, Walter Newton has been named a staff writer for the publication. He will continue to cover breaking news, courts, crime, education, health-care, business, county history and features. Last month, Newton won a second place award for best feature / health story at the annual Colo-rado Press Association convention.
Flume Editor Emily Clingman reported that Newton began his journalism path at an early age when his grandfather, who worked for The New York Times, gave the boy his portable typewriter after he retired. Early on, Newton learned to type by writing science fiction sto-ries. His love for storytelling continued through a 40-year career in computer programming. A published playwright, Newton has had four of his full-length plays performed on Denver stages. Then, as Clingman wrote: “In 2013, after meeting the former (Flume) editor at the scene of a wildfire, Newton tried his hand at report-ing. The rest, as they say, is history.”
Newspaper Association of America CEO to resign
Newspaper Association of America (NAA) President and CEO Caroline Little announced she will leave her post Aug. 31, after which she will join her family in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Little was named to the job in 2011. Previously, she was CEO North America for Guardian News and Media Ltd., and prior to that pub-lisher and CEO of Washington Post Newsweek Interactive.
During her time at NAA she oversaw strate-gic refocusing of the organization, the merger of the American Press Institute with the NAA Foundation in 2012, and work with members of Congress and other government entities to
ensure freedom of information for the public and legal protection for journalists.
Before Little leaves her post, NAA will help the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) organize the World News Media Congress 2015, set for June 1-3 in Washington, D.C. Said Little: “The event is a tremendous opportunity for global publishers, editors and advertisers to gather and exchange ideas about the future of our industry. We look forward to showcasing how the U.S. newspaper industry has transformed by inno-vating its print, digital and mobile offerings.”
AP CEO: killing journalists should be war crimes
Gary Pruitt, president and CEO of The As-sociated Press, recently said changes should be made to make it a war crime to kill journalists or take them hostage. During a speech at Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Pruitt said: “It used to be that when media wore ‘press’ emblazoned on their vest, or ‘press’ or ‘media’ was on their vehicle, it gave them a degree of protection. But guess what: That labeling now is more likely to make them a target.”
Four AP journalists were killed on assign-ment in 2014, while 61 journalists were killed globally. Pruitt said that while a new framework to protect journalists would not necessarily prevent their deaths, it would raise awareness of the idea that media workers, like doctors and nurses, should not be targeted during war.
Quark update comingQuark Software Inc. scheduled the release
of its first major upgrade since 2013 with QuarkXPress 2015 coming out on April 28. The new upgrade will continue to be sold as a perpetual license. The update to its design and layout platform includes many of the most popular user-requested features. The top 10 most-requested features have been incorpo-rated, including: larger page sizes, the ability to relink any picture in the usage dialog, a 64-bit performance, verified PDF/X-4 output, and dedicated orthogonal line tool.
colorado editor 3April 2015
By Cheryl GhristContributing Editor
This issue, “10 Questions” checked in Tom Bredehoft, pub-lisher of The Flagler News and the Mile Saver Shopper in eastern Colorado. A former Colorado Press Association board president (2007), he’s also the mayor of Flagler and owns the popular ’50s-style I-70 Diner on that interstate route 35 miles east of Limon (look for the rotating pink Cadillac high atop a pole). Here’s the rest of his story:
At what age, and who or what got you interested in journalism, and newspapers in particular?
When I was 7 or 8, a Chautauqua came to Flagler and Clyde Coulter, The Flagler News owner/publisher/editor, was putting out a special edi-tion. So I went to the newspaper to see if he needed any help with that edition and just fell in love with the whole aspect of what he did. From that time on I was the reporter/historian of every organization I was in.
I was my town’s newspaper publisher at Boys State. I put out a school newspaper during high school and was editor of the year book staff three out of my four years. I knew Clyde would be retiring soon as he was in his 80’s, so when I was in college I told him please don’t sell until I get out and have an opportu-nity to purchase the paper.
Flagler was established in 1888 as a small settlement near the then-new Rock Island Railroad line. But first it was called Bowser, after a dog owned by someone who ran a general store and post office. Then it was named Malowe, after the railroad’s attorney, M.A. Lowe, and finally Flagler, after Henry Flagler, railroad builder and oil man. The Flagler News has been the home-town newspaper since 1913. When did you come into the picture, who was there before you, and how happy are you that you don’t run the Bowser Bugle or some such?
I started The Mile Saver Shopper a year after I graduated from UNC. I was sitting on a tractor (farming) and was wondering why I went to college because I didn’t need an education to do what I was doing. Then I heard a commercial for a Thrifty Nickel ad and thought that would work out here on the plains if you distributed to enough towns. So I told my boss I was done and went to work starting the Shopper.
My dream finally came true seven years later when Clyde and Ruth Coulter, after 45 years, finally semi-retired and sold me The Flagler News the first of January 1993. I married my secretary, Jean, in 1994 and our daughter, Taylor Jean Knowlton Bredehoft, was born in February 1997.
‘Knowlton’ was to honor the first owner/publisher of The Flagler News in 1913, E. H. Knowlton. She was fortunate because J.D. Heiney took over The Flagler News in 1914. There have been three own-ers/publishers in the past 85 years and I’m proud to be mentioned with the likes of T. Guard, William Borland and the Coulters.
You’re a University of Northern Colorado grad, along with a lot of other Colorado newspaper people. Who was in your class, and were you all competitive?
I went to UNC with a major in journalism, with an emphasis in small town newspapers and a com-munication minor. My sophomore year I got a job at the school news-paper, The Mirror.
I was a terrible writer, but they needed a warm body so they put me on intramural sports. By the time I was a senior, I had moved up to the minor sports like hockey and rugby. Matt (Lubich, co-owner of The Johnstown Breeze) can reaffirm that. It was somewhat competitive because everyone wanted to get the big stories and great photos. I really savored the opportunity because I knew that once I was done with college, my staff would be me, my-self and I at The Flagler News.
Speaking of Jean, how do the two of you divide the duties of two weekly publications?
I couldn’t imagine not working with my lovely wife, Jean, by my
side. I couldn’t because I couldn’t have done it or continue to do it without her. We work well together, she handles the bookkeeping as-pects and pretty much takes care of the Shopper, along with three other full-time employees.
She lets me have one of those employees to help me with The Flagler News. I can’t say we don’t take our work home or that we don’t bring our personal life to the office because it all runs together, but it works.
Your newspaper serves Kit Carson County, Flagler, Seibert, Ar-riba and Vona. You publish about 1,000 copies of your weekly plus a shopper, distributing 14,000 copies in eastern Colorado and western Kansas in stores, offices, gas sta-tions, travel stops and sale barns. Your editions are on your Flagler News Facebook page, and show a newspaper that includes primarily community events and government news, with lots of story and photo coverage of schools and school sports. This reflects a local, family-oriented audience. Are you their main source of news?
We’re a small town community newspaper covering high school sports, town and school board meet-ings, and local happenings. Parents still want to cut their kid’s pictures out of the paper and put it on their refrigerator, so we give them that. Yeah, I’d like to think we are the main source of news in the area.
Author Hal Borland, who wrote outdoor editorials for the New York Times as well as several novels and other books on that topic, moved to Flagler when he was 15 when his father became publisher of your newspaper. How many newspapers have there been in Flagler and vicinity?
William Borland took over The Flagler News in 1915 with another newspaper, The Flagler Progress, be-ing in existence since 1908. Borland bought out the Progress in 1918, merging the two.
In my Internet travels, I saw you listed as mayor of Flagler and owner of the I-70 Diner. For the former, how long and how do you find the time; for the latter, what’s the best thing on the menu?
I got on The Flagler town board right after I came back from college so I’ve been on the board for over 30 years, with two years taken off when Taylor was born. I have been mayor for the last eight years.
The diner was just one big mis-take. I did it for an investment and to clean up the entrance into the town. I never intended to ever run a restaurant, but somehow (too long of a story) I ended up taking it over and running it.
It’s a one-of-kind 1999 Starlite 1950 replica, silver, neon-lighted, 155-patron diner with a spinning, pink Cadillac on a 25-foot check-ered pole. Our best meal is the hand-breaded, chicken-fried steak. We also have Rocky Mountain oysters and great milk shakes.
Can you name your top three men-tors and how they influenced you?
My dad, who passed away in October of last year, was Flagler’s high school football coach and he taught not just me, but everyone on the team, “work hard at what you do” ethics. He also got my brother and myself jobs in the oilfields to pay our way through college. You definitely learn a hard-work ethic in the oil fields. Second – Rol and Joy Hudler.
Rol has more newspaper knowl-edge in his little finger than most journalists do in their entire body. It’s always a learning experience getting my papers printed at the Burlington Record. I named Joy because I grew up reading her columns and tried to model my writing to hers. Last, but probably not least, third would be the late Lewis Klein, the former owner/publisher of the Strasburg Eastern Colorado News. Lewis retired and moved to Flagler, so when I wanted to start the Shopper, I went to him for advice.
He loaned me money and worked for pennies to help me get it started. Even with my emphasis in com-munity newspapers – UNC taught me a wide range of everything you needed to know to do all aspects of a small newspaper – I could never have started up a paper and made it work without his grumpy assistance.
Neat desk or not so much, and what would we see there?
I have two desks in my office, both are what one might say a cluster *%@?. As I look around, I see three checkbooks, subscription no-tices that need to be cut, sports pro-grams from 2012 and even older if I dug deeper, and sticky notes lining almost every open space around the desk. In the corner is a pile, a foot high and 3-feet wide, of catalogs ranging from restaurant equipment to advertising knickknacks.
Do you have a current personal or professional goal in mind?
My wife is a few years older than me and really looking forward to more traveling and watching our grandkids’ sporting events now that our daughter is going off to college. After 30 years of doing pretty much the same thing week after week, (that’s a complete lie) I’m looking at the same. Not retiring, but not do-ing as much as we are now. It would be nice not to have those proverbial deadlines.
10 Questions with: Tom Bredehoft
Courtesy photo
Last summer, Tom, Jean and daughter Taylor Bredehoft posed at a waterfall west of Colorado Springs for a friend who was a photographer for Taylor’s senior pictures.
4 colorado editor April 2015
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Tearing into the digital ageCPA looking to move to digital tear sheets
Staff report
The Colorado Press Association is looking to tear apart its current tear sheet program set-up and go digital.
The goal would be to benefit all involved.
According to CPA bylaws, member papers are supposed to either send one electronic copy or send four to five copies (depending on membership type) of their print publication to the CPA office. This is used for a variety of reasons, most notably the tear sheet pro-gram and the clipping service.
By moving to a digital platform, SYNC2 Media, the for-profit af-filiate of the CPA, can process tear sheets faster, meaning it can bill faster … meaning papers can get paid faster for advertising placed
through SYNC2 Media.It will also save papers on yearly
postage or delivery costs to the CPA.
So it saves member newspapers money, but also allows them to paid faster for placed ads.
The CPA is working with Newz Group, which currently processes the tear sheet program through the print papers.
More benefitsIn addition to benefits of faster
payment and cost savings, Newz Group offers other benefits, as well. By using a digital process, it creates a digital archive for papers to use, either for their own search purposes or in the event that something should happen to their print archive.
Newz Group also offers a free E-Edition to CPA members using the program. Going digital also benefits Newz Group, as it allows the clipping service to be more effective since they won’t have to wait for the delivery time
to receive the papers and then process them.
An easy processPapers will be able to upload
digital copies either through a web portal or an ftp site.
The majority of newspapers already convert papers to PDFs if they are sending them to im-age setters or Computer to Plate
programs. Other papers create PDFs for
their E-Editions. For papers that are already
making such PDFs, importing them to the clipping service is a simple process of uploading it to a website portal or ftp site.
The CPA’s goal is to have 90 percent of member papers moved over to digital tear sheets by year’s
end.
More information to comeThe CPA and Newz Group are
working on details to roll out the program. Projects Coordinator Jean Williams is spearheading the project for the CPA. If you have questions, contact her at 720-274-7174 or at [email protected].
Are you getting tired of clipping those newspapers? The Colorado Press Association and NewzGroup are teaming up to make it easier for you to have a digital tearsheet program.
colorado editor 5April 2015
Programs in:Journalism
Media StudiesCommunication
Advertising, Public Relations and Media DesignInformation Science
Critical Media PracticesIIntermedia Art, Writing and Performance
CPA joins amicus briefCPA, media organizations argue for public release of names of teachers who called in sick
By Jeffrey A. RobertsCFOIC Executive Director
A legal move by the Jefferson County teachers’ union to block the release of names of teachers who collectively called in sick last fall incorrectly claims that information on absences is a private personnel matter, several Colorado media organizations argued in a friend-of-the-court brief.
The brief was submitted April 10 on behalf of the Colorado Press Association, the Colorado Freedom of Information Coali-tion, the Colorado Broadcasters Association, The Denver Post and the Associated Press.
It contends that the Jeffco school district should be allowed to release the teachers’ names “because the public has a com-pelling interest in being able to monitor the performance (or, as here, non-performance) of public employees’ public functions and the expenditure of public funds.”
The Jefferson County Educa-tion Association was granted a preliminary injunction in Febru-ary that temporarily bars the district from filling an open-re-cords request for the names made earlier that month by Kathy Littlefield, a Golden parent of twin sixth-graders.
Littlefield asked for records showing which teachers at four Jeffco high schools called in sick or took personal leave over two days last September in an appar-ent protest against school board policies. Classes were canceled because so many teachers were absent.
A motion filed by the union in Jefferson County District Court asserts that teacher-absence files are personnel records and “medical information” that must be kept confidential under the Colorado Open Records Act.
Releasing the names, the union claims, would violate the teach-ers’ privacy and “cause (them) irreparable injury.”
But the amicus brief submitted to the court by the media organi-zations notes that the Colorado Court of Appeals has narrowly defined the scope of personnel information that is exempt from public disclosure.
The exemption is limited to “personal demographic informa-tion” of the same general nature as home addresses, telephone numbers or personal financial
data. It doesn’t include “identify-
ing only which public employees were absent from four public high schools on two particular dates and received public funds in compensation nonetheless.”
The brief also disputes the union’s contention that the teachers have a constitutionally protected “reasonable expecta-tion of privacy” in records that merely show they were absent on a particular day.
Littlefield’s CORA request “does not seek to inspect any of the reasons given by these public employees for their taking sick leave,” the brief argues.
Her request “made clear that she is interested to discover only which public employees…called in ‘sick’ on two particular dates and were therefore compensated from public funds for their ex-cused absences from performing their public functions.”
The amicus brief notes that “numerous courts throughout the country have determined that disclosure of this exact infor-mation – the names of public employees and the days on which they received paid leave – does not constitute ‘highly personal and sensitive information,’ such that its disclosure would consti-tute an invasion of privacy.”
A hearing on the case is scheduled for May 15.
I ’m in the midst of one of those crazy, multi-town, trips that leaves little time for remember-
ing what happened yesterday because I’m too busy getting ready for today.
Friday found me in Cambridge, Minnesota. Wade Weber and I have known each other since the first time he invited me to his newspaper in Mora, Minnesota, somewhere around seven or eight years ago. Since then, he’s had me back to visit one of his offices about every other year.
As we went around the room, everyone introduc-ing themselves, I loved hearing, “I’m editor of the new paper!”
Who knew? Wade has a brand new newspaper. I always wonder why people think there aren’t new papers being created. I run into them all over the place. Recently, six very successful non-dailies in Florida. Two in my home-town of Knoxville, Tennessee. Wade’s new paper in Minnesota. They seem to be popping up everywhere.
It’s no surprise that his papers are popular. His group has several titles in area communities, paid and free, each with its own local staff. At the end of the day in Cambridge, Wade and I went back to his pressroom to look over some of the papers his group publishes each week.
The production quality was excel-lent. Good color. Great photos. Reds were red and blues were blue. Regular training over the years will lead to those types of results.
I didn’t know it before Wade told me, but Ed Henninger had been to Cambridge to help with design just a couple of months earlier. I wasn’t sur-prised. The pages looked near perfect.
I saw a story about a daily news-paper for sale a couple of days ago. Almost as a side note, it was mentioned that the paper had a profit in the 20 to 25 percent range. And why was it for sale? Apparently, that wasn’t enough for the giant corporation that owns it. So, it’s for sale.
Another thing that I noticed while visiting Cambridge that has been a common thread in visits to newspapers this year is the enthusiasm present among staffs. It’s almost like it’s
fun to work at a newspaper again.I’m glad. For three or four years,
newspapers were starting to seem destined for doom. Someone, prob-ably me, should do a study to find out how many new newspapers have been started in the past year. I’ll bet it’s a lot.
The headlines continue to be
See SLIMP, Page 7
Hey readers, let me let you in on a secret
KevinSLIMP
The News Guru
6 colorado editor April 2015
Lawmakers advance bill to limit immunity, encourage information on violent incidents
Colorado Freedom of Informa-tion Coalition
Following measured but heart-wrenching testimony from the parents of slain Arapahoe High student Claire Davis, a Senate com-mittee on April 13 endorsed a bill to limit school district immunity and encourage the flow of informa-tion on events leading up to violent school incidents.
“Please don’t make the next mother beg for answers to why her child was killed in a public school
in the state of Colorado,” Desiree Davis said to lawmakers.
The Senate Judiciary Committee passed SB 15-213 on a 4-1 vote. The bill would waive sovereign immunity for claims against school districts and charter schools related to incidents that result in serious injuries or deaths.
It also is intended to promote “robust and vigorous discovery of events leading to…incidents of school violence.”
Michael Davis, Claire’s father, testified that only limited informa-
tion is available regarding how the school dealt with shooter Karl Pier-son’s erratic behavior and threats he made prior to Claire’s murder in December 2013.
The school and Littleton Public Schools “have made a conscious and deliberate choice,” he said. “They’ve chosen to remain absolutely silent.”
Without passage of the bill, Mi-chael Davis said, schools and school districts “can continue to shield themselves with a cloak of secrecy to hide their actions or inactions from victims, parents, students,
lawmakers and other citizens of this state.”
Opponents, including the asso-ciations of school boards and school executives, contended the measure would establish an unreasonably low threshold of liability for school districts.
“This bill create a lot of exposure for schools,” said Sonje McKenzie, general counsel for the Cherry Creek School District. Because the language of SB 15-213 would be subject to interpretation, she added, “the result will be that if students
engage in any kind of misconduct that in any way, shape or form could be deemed a safety issue, school administrators are going to have no choice other than to suspend or expel them.”
The Davis family and Littleton Public Schools recently agreed to a process that includes full discovery of events that led to the Arapahoe High shooting.
Visit CFOIC’s legislature page to track bills in the General Assembly that could affect the flow or availabil-ity of information in Colorado.
Colorado health care exchange sued over emailsBy Jeffrey A. Roberts CFOIC Executive Director
A lawsuit filed by the Inde-pendence Institute on Monday alleges that Colorado’s health care exchange improperly withheld em-ployees’ emails requested under the Colorado Open Records Act.
Connect for Health Colorado refused to turn over any emails to the Denver-based free-market think tank earlier this year, claim-ing its requests for information were unreasonable, overly broad “fishing expeditions.”
“These excuses have no basis in law,” argues the Independence Institute’s complaint, which was filed in Denver District Court.
Todd Shepherd, an Indepen-dence Institute reporter and
editor of The Complete Colorado, first asked in January for emails of three Connect for Health Colorado employees spanning a two-day period. When the health exchange’s chief marketing officer responded that his CORA request was “potentially substantial and administratively burdensome” because each email had to be re-viewed for privileged information, Shepherd narrowed the scope to a one-day period.
After a second denial, Shep-herd asked for the emails of two employees for a specific five-hour period on a particular day. The third request also was denied. Alan Schmitz, general counsel for Connect for Health Colorado, re-sponded that “It is not reasonable to review ‘all emails’ on all topics
for even one individual.” “The public policy behind
CORA is not to promote fishing expeditions,” Schmitz wrote, add-ing that “this is exactly why” the open-records statute allows records custodians to “make rules as are reasonably necessary to prevent unnecessary interference” with the discharge of their duties.
The Independence Institute contends that Connect for Health Colorado “failed to undertake a le-gitimate, thorough and reasonable search for documents” responsive to Shepherd’s requests.
The health care exchange, the lawsuit says, should be ordered by the court “to show cause” why access to the emails should be withheld from the Independence Institute. The suit also asks the
court to allow inspection of the documents and to award the think tank court costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees.
Luke Clarke, director of com-munications for Connect for Health Colorado, said the agency would not comment on “pending litigation.”
Shepherd last year asked for a court order to compel the state Division of Insurance to justify its refusal to release emails pertaining to the renewal of health insurance policies not in compliance with the Affordable Care Act. That case is still pending.
In the legal action filed, the Independence Institute is repre-sented by attorneys Geoffrey Blue and Scott Gessler, the former Colorado secretary of state.
State to appropriatenew lawyer for record requests?
By Jeffrey A. Roberts CFOIC Executive Director
The $25 billion budget bill that passed the Colorado Senate earlier in April includes a relatively minis-cule appropriation for a new lawyer in the Attorney General’s office to help with a growing number of requests for public records.
Not only are requests under the Colorado Open Records Act more plentiful than they used to be, they are broader and more complex, the Department of Law told the legislature’s Joint Budget Commit-tee when the agency presented its budget proposal last fall.
“It appears that more requests are ‘fishing’ for information rather (than) seeking detail on a specific issue,” says a budget brief prepared by the JBC staff.
Added Carolyn Tyler, the AG’s communications director: “CORA has become a constant legal chal-lenge with requests becoming increasingly broad, multi-faceted, and litigious.”
For example, some requesters have asked for “all communications with federal agencies” rather than communications with a specific federal agency. Another recent request “could require detailed physical handling of approximately 5,500 documents (some of which are 200 pages in length) to review and redact necessary information,” according to the budget brief. The JBC document also cites “the in-creasing use of CORA requests as a political and/or litigation tool.”
The AG-run law department re-ceived 95 CORA requests through mid-October of 2014, up from 73 in all of 2012. Anecdotally, other state agencies also are getting more requests, the department reported, although there is no hard data available.
Publishers Mike Bennett and Ben Rogers sit in on a session during this year's convention. The Colorado Press Association wants your input on how it can make the convention and awards ceremony better. Go to https://www.sur-veymonkey.com/r/CPAChanges. The survey will be up until March 30.
Thomas Cooper, Lightboximages.com
Make the convention better
colorado editor 7April 2015
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Not so secretBy Jeffrey A. RobertsCFOIC Executive Director
An Arvada resident who sued his city for using secret ballots to fill a council vacancy can indeed show that he was injured by the closed-door process, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled April 9 in overturn-ing a district judge’s decision to dismiss the case.
Russell Weisfield alleged that Arvada council members ignored Colorado’s Open Meetings Law — also called the Sunshine Law — when they voted four times by secret ballot in January 2014 to eliminate candidates for a vacant council seat.
His suit was tossed, not on the merits of his argument, but because the judge said Weisfield lacked legal standing.
Jefferson County District Court Judge Margie Enquist ruled that Weisfield couldn’t show he had been personally harmed by the council’s secret votes because he wasn’t among the finalists for the vacancy and never claimed that the appointee, Jerry Marks, failed to “adequately represent his interests” as a resident of Arvada’s council District 1.
The Court of Appeals broadly rejected Enquist’s decision and sent the case back to district court.
“We conclude that Weisfield has a legally protected interest in having his City Council fill the District 1 vacancy in a manner that complies with the Open Meetings Law,” the
appellate court’s decision says. Weisfield, it adds, is not required
to show that he was a candidate for the vacant seat or that Marks “somehow acted against his per-sonal interests. Weisfield’s allegation that he was deprived of access to information about how the council members voted is sufficient to dem-onstrate an injury in fact.”
The Sunshine Law “articulates an interest in having public business conducted openly and provides a mechanism for private citizens to protect that interest,” the Court of Appeals said. “We, therefore, conclude that the statute creates a legally protected interest on behalf of Colorado citizens in having public bodies conduct public busi-ness openly in conformity with its provisions.”
“I’m glad that the court con-cluded what I always believed was true — namely that I have the right to know how my city council voted,” said Weisfield, who is represented by Denver attorney Elliot Fladen.
“Sadly,” he added, “the case con-tinues and is not yet resolved.”
Maria VanderKolk, communica-tions manager for Arvada, said the city attorney’s office is reviewing the decision and will be discussing it with the City Council at a later date.
With the lawsuit back in district court, the judge may consider a motion from Arvada to dismiss the case on others grounds. Arvada argues that, as a home rule city, the Colorado Constitution allows it to
set its own procedural rules for mat-ters involving municipal elections.
The city also contends that the Open Meetings Law does not dic-tate how a home-rule municipality must conduct the process for filling a council vacancy.
“Therefore, while the meetings themselves must comport with the Colorado Open Meetings Law, the statute is not applicable to city council vacancies,” Arvada’s motion says.
The secret ballots provision of the Sunshine Law was enacted in 2012. It generally prohibits the state or any local public body from voting in secret to adopt “any proposed policy, position, resolution, rule, or regula-tion” or to take “formal action.”
The state Legislature enacted the prohibition against secret ballots following a Court of Appeals ruling that the Fort Morgan City Council did not violate the Sunshine Law when it used anonymous written ballots to appoint two council mem-bers and a municipal judge in 2009 and 2010.
Last year, reacting to the dismissal of Weisfield’s case in district court, the Legislature approved HB 14-1390 without a single “no” vote.
The measure, signed by Gov. John Hickenlooper last June, ensures that anyone has legal standing to challenge violations of the Sunshine Law.
Weisfield was recently awarded the Colorado Press Associations Friend of the First Award for fight-ing for open government.
Colorado Court of Appeals revives citizen’s lawsuit against Arvada
“
“
I’m glad that the court concluded what I always believed was true — namely that I have the right to now how my city council vot-ed. Sadly, he case contin-ues and is not resolved.– Russell We-isfield, Arvada resident
about huge corporations like Digital First, Gannett and others selling and buying papers. But don’t kid yourself. The real story this year is the renewed vitality in the newspaper industry.
Surely you read the comments of Martin Sorrell, CEO of the world’s largest advertising group, as well as highest paid CEO in Europe, concern-ing newspaper advertising. In April, he said that print media is more power-ful than agencies believe and advised advertisers to spend more in print.
“Publishers need to ensure their offering is as quick and simple to buy as other solutions in the market,” said Sorrell. “In doing so, they will no doubt continue to prosecute the case not only for the value of their audience but the engagement and influence of their mastheads and digital properties with those audiences.”
I couldn’t have said it better. And I certainly wouldn’t have had the audi-ence Sorrell has when it comes to ad executives.
It pleases me to know that influ-ential leaders like Martin Sorrell and Warren Buffett understand the value of newspapers. Frankly, though, I’m more pleased that people like Wade Weber, publisher in Minnesota, Victor Parkins, in Tennessee, and Jerry Tidwell, in Texas, do.
It’s the folks I’ve recently visited in places like Minnesota, Texas, Tennes-see and Florida that give me optimism about the future. There’s a keynote I give now and then at conventions titled, “I wish you knew what I knew.”
Now, you know a little of it.
SLIMP Continued from Page 5
8 colorado editor April 2015
Postal service delays April 2015 price change
From the NNA
The Postal Service Governors decided to delay the implementa-tion of new market-dominant and competitive rates and classifica-tion changes until all of NNA’s proposed market-dominant changes are approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission.
This decision was primarily motivated by a desire to eliminate po-tential adverse impacts on postal customers that might result from a staggered implementation of our new prices.
After considering the complexity of the required programming changes in view of the remand of some of our proposed changes by the Postal Regulatory Committee, the specific complications that our customers might face; the potential cost to the supply chain as a whole of a staggered implementation, the Postal Service has decided to delay implementation until all of our proposed rates and classifi-cation changes can be implemented at one time.
While proposed prices for First Class Mail, Special Services and Competitive Products have all been approved by the PRC, prices for the Standard Mail, Periodicals and Package Services classes have twice been remanded back to the Postal Service by the PRC for a wide array of technical and other concerns that are primarily related to the complexities of the price cap and the manner in which it is calculated.
Rather than subject our customers to a piecemeal implementa-tion of our new prices, the Postal Service has decided that the best course of action would be to wait until our complete price proposal is approved by our regulator.
We have no desire to saddle our valued customers with the ad-ditional costs and burdens of a staggered implementation while we work with the PRC to obtain final approval of our remaining prices.
We will set a new implementation date when we propose new prices for Standard Mail, Periodicals, and Package Services in re-sponse to the PRC’s March 18th remand order.
Metro Creative Connection
The Post Office will wait to implement price changes until all proposed rates and classification changes can be implemented at one time.
colorado editor 9April 2015
Larry BurroughFormer Denver Post managing editor
Larry Burrough, managing editor of The Denver Post from 2000-2002, died March 9 in Yakima,
Washington, at age 66. He moved to his hometown of Ellensburg, Washington, several years ago to help take care of his father, who was ill. He was
diagnosed with a brain tumor last year. Burrough was born Aug. 19, 1947, in Ellensburg. He earned a bachelor’s degree from what is now Central Washington University.
Burrough began his journalism ca-reer at the Yakima-Herald Republic, working there from 1971-74. He went on to several other newspapers in the Pacific Northwest before heading south. He was named city editor at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner in the 1980s. When that newspaper closed down, he moved on to become a senior editor at the Orange County Register, where he oversaw a Pulitzer Prize-winning in-vestigative series in 1996. He joined The Denver Post as managing editor in mid-2000, holding that post for the next two years.
Former Post columnist Tina Griego said Burrough taught her “that excellent reporting and writing demanded of me the same require-ment: That I learn to listen. He taught me to look for detail. He taught me to keep my ear attuned to the cadence of sentences, the rhythm of conversations. He taught me that my heart as much as my head would lead me to the story.”
He is survived by two sisters, a brother, a son, a daughter and a stepdaughter.
Lynde D. McCormick IIIFormer Rocky Mountain News
business editor
Lynde D. McCormick III, former business editor at the Rocky Mountain News, died recently at age 64. Named after his grandfather – Lynde Dupuy McCormick, a U.S.
Navy four-star admiral during World War II – he disliked his name as a boy, but be-came proud of it as he grew up. There was also a ship in the Navy fleet,
the guided-missile destroyer USS Lynde McCormick, based in San Diego for her 30-year war career.
McCormick was born March 26, 1950, in Annapolis, Maryland, to U.S. Naval Academy graduate Lynde D. McCormick Jr. and Reid Lazenby McCormick. His fam-ily moved to La Jolla, California, and he graduated from Principia College with a bachelor of arts degree in history. He met his wife and future business partner, Andrea Jenks, in college. They were married for 41 years.
McCormick worked for 25 years in journalism print, TV and radio, then 17 years as a businessman. His journalism career began with work as a copy boy in 1972 at the Christian Science Monitor. In 1981, he joined the staff of the Rocky Mountain News. McCormick pub-lished his last column in the Rocky on Dec. 16, 1990, writing: “So, this is goodbye. I’m outta here.” He was headed east to take an anchor post for a new Christian Science Moni-tor cable channel based in Boston. He had his own show, “Business by Lynde.” When the channel business failed, he moved on to an anchor job at CNBC Asia in Hong Kong. When Jack Welch, head of General Electric, owner of NBC, shut down the network, McCormick moved back to the states.
McCormick and his wife Andrea, aka “Kiki,” had a Chinese art and antique import business, Han Horse, in Manhattan. McCormick also loved food and cooking, open-ing two restaurants in New York City: Brooklyn Label in Green-point, Brooklyn, and later Café Jax on the Upper East Side. In his spare time, he enjoyed running, sailing, competitive swimming, surfing, skiing and scuba diving. He was an experienced downhill skier and climbed more than half of the 14ers in Colorado. He also served as a First Reader in his church and authored several papers on his religion. McCormick is survived by his wife, son and daughter, a sister, a daughter-in-law, a grandson, and his father and step-mother.
Calvin QuealFormer Colorado & Wyoming
writer, editor, ad man
Calvin Queal, a longtime re-porter, columnist and editor for The Denver Post and Empire Magazine,
as well as the owner of two advertising agencies, died Jan. 14 at age 87, after a long bout with kidney disease. He grew up in Casper and Evanston,
Wyoming, then served two tours in the U.S. Army infantry and the Counter Intelligence Corps. His first journalism job was editing Wyoming Wildlife Magazine. He went on to edit the Laramie Daily Boomerang. In 1954 he became the first bureau chief when The Post started a bureau in Grand Junction. Queal later moved to the Denver office, where he was the environ-mental editor, as well as a writer and photographer. He left in 1971, moving to Gunnison County, where he worked in public relations for the new Crested Butte Ski Area, and later founded his own adver-tising company in Gunnison. In 1983, he moved to Grand Junction and opened another ad agency. He retired there and moved to Palisade, where he kept busy with hiking, playing piano and starting a jazz band that played in local hotels and nursing homes until several years ago.
obituaries
marketplace
EdHENNINGER
Henninger Consultants
Your small weekly is focused intensely on local news, but you made the decision some time ago that teasers (if you use any) just
don’t work up there near your nameplate.Still, you’d like to draw some reader interest to
the top of page 1.Here’s a suggestion: run a local photo adjacent
to your nameplate. Better yet, run it behind the nameplate, in the top left corner.
That tiny photo—especially if you trade it out frequently—becomes an element that readers will want to check with every new issue.
Here are some suggestions:LOCAL, LOCAL, LOCAL: Make
sure the scene in the photo is from your area. Running a night shot of the Balti-more skyline isn’t gonna do it.
USE A SCENIC: The photo can be a close-up of clover, horses in a field, a mountain ridge…
MAKE IT SEASONAL: The close-up of clover will really be out of date if there’s a foot of snow on the ground.
AVOID PEOPLE SHOTS: Unless, like the bottom example in the illustration with this column, the person in the photo is generic, as “man sailing.” Faces in photos this small are just hard to see. And, remember, these are supposed to be photos that are representative of your area—not a picture taken at an award ceremony or a shot of the winning field goal.
A LANDMARK? Sure, you could use a shot of your county courthouse cupola here. But after four or five issues with the same photo, reader interest wanes.
A BRIEF CAPTION: If you really think it’s necessary, you can place a brief caption below the photo. The emphasis here is on “brief.” You can say “Sailing Lake Bedford,” but let’s not do “Hampton attorney Bob Craig takes time out from a busy workweek to relax while sailing last Wednesday afternoon on Lake Bedford.” Remember, this is a photo that’s supposed to represent your area, not offer details of a specific event.
FEATHER IT: Use your software’s feathering capability to feather the photo’s right edge. This allows it to go behind your nameplate without a hard edge that can obscure some of the letter-ing in the nameplate.
SHADOW THE NAME-PLATE: Try using a hard white shadow on the nameplate to help it stand off from the photo. In the illustration here, I copied the black nameplate, made it white and then put a soft shadow behind the white copy. Then I moved the original black nameplate to the front. The white-with-shadow look helps give the nameplate better “pop” to separate it
from the photo.A photo in your nameplate tells your readers
you’re not the same old newspaper from week to week. You’re different. You’re fresh. You’re local. Test it out. You can make it work. For you…and your readers.
Ed Henninger is an independent newspaper con-sultant and the Director of Henninger Consulting. On the web:www.henningerconsulting.com. Phone: 803-327-3322.
How some photos might look behind your nameplate.
Picture this…
Mugshots bill passesFOR SALE
Rocky Mountain living at its best. Community newspaper for sale in gorgeous recreational area with some of the best hunting, fishing and skiing in Montana. Bottom line increasing. Exceptional reputation for serving the area. Inquiries: 406-225-3821 or [email protected]
In response to unscrupulous businesses that set up websites of people’s mugshots for the sole pur-pose of charging the people whose mugshots were posted to take them down, the Colorado General As-sembly passed legislation in 2014 to make the practice illegal and to re-quire people who request mugshots sign an affirmation that they will not use the mugshots in violation of the law.
An unintended consequence of the new law was that the require-ment for an affirmation with every
request was that it became more difficult and less efficient for the media to request mugshots and for law enforcement agencies to fulfill the requests. CPA worked with the County Sheriffs of Colorado to craft an amendment that allows a single annual affirmation for mugshot re-quests. HB 1137, sponsored by Rep. KC Becker of Boulder and Senator John Cooke of Greeley, implements the solution that maintains the protections of last year’s bill while making it easier for CPA member newspapers to access mugshots.
10 colorado editor April 2015
9Ways to use numbers in headlines
Whether on a printed page, monitor or mobile device, the headline is the most important part of an ad. It tells the reader what the ad is about. With the blink of an eye, he or she decides whether it’s worth the effort to keep reading.
Numbers can help you create compelling headlines, as long as they are specific and relevant. Here are a few examples. Note that these numbers as expressed as digits, not words:
1. “Only 6 townhomes left.” Using a specific number, rather than saying “they’re going fast,” communicates proof of scarcity. As sales increase, the countdown should continue. You can also use this technique to indicate time: “Only 8 days left.”
2. “Save $1,000 on new car-pet.” A specific dollar amount is easier to visualize than “a lot.” It’s worth mentioning that this headline works better with a verb (“save”) than with a passive phrase like, “$1,000 discount on new carpet.”
4. “According to XYZ Survey, we rank number 1 in parts avail-ability.” If this kind of headline isn’t supported by evidence, it won’t have an ounce of credibili-ty. I remember a car dealer who ran ads claiming to be “number one.” Not surprisingly, other dealers countered with claims that they were number one. The problem was that it was a blanket statement, with no facts to back it up.
3. “Save 25 percent on Merino wool sweaters.” This is a varia-tion of the dollar tactic in the carpet headline. The difference is that a percentage indicates proportion. Of course, the body copy should indicate the dollar amounts of the 25 percent.
9. “1,500 widgets sold so far this year.” Years ago, this tactic was used by McDonald’s. Right there on the golden arches sign was the message “Over 240 billion sold.” It was a big joke to say you were so hungry that you were going to make the number change. Other examples of quantity-headlines include, “We’ve sold 26 homes in the past 3 months;” “Last year, we helped 3,425 stu-dents pass their college entrance exams;” and “Since we opened our doors, we’ve paved over 1,000 miles of driveways.”
7. “In your area, there is a house break-in every 32 min-utes.” Here’s an example of a headline that creates a sense of urgency. Again, make sure the advertiser – in this case a home security company – uses verifiable figures.
8. “28 years of dry clean-ing experience.” This headline equates years with expertise. Another way to sell experience is to add the number of work-ing years of the people who work there: “Our staff has 191 years of experience.”
6. “5 ways to cut your electric bill.” This headline promises important information about a specific problem. It would certainly get the attention of anyone wanting to reduce en-ergy costs.
5. “4 out of 5 dentists recom-mend…” This line was made famous by a brand of sugar-free chewing gum. Before you use this kind of testimonial evidence, make sure you are quoting a legitimate survey.
JohnFOUST
Advertiser Trainer
Caroline LITTLE
CEO NNA
John Foust has conducted train-ing programs for thousands of newspaper advertising professionals. Many ad departments are using his training videos to save time and get quick results from in-house training. E-mail for information: [email protected]. Copyright 2015 by John Foust. All rights reserved.
Why strengthening FOIA is so importantPresident Obama has routinely
promised greater transparency within the federal government.
Now, Congress is making strides to-wards achieving this critical goal.
The House of Representatives and Senate are currently considering nearly identical bills to strengthen the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA), which provides the general public, including journalists, with access to federal gov-ernment records.
This legislation has received broad support across media organizations, including the Sunshine in Govern-ment Initiative, a coalition of which the Newspaper Association of America is a member. And here’s why:
Openness instead of secrecy would be the “default” key within the govern-ment.
The legislation would require agen-cies to release documents under a “pre-sumption of openness,” reaffirming the principle that information should never be kept confidential to protect govern-ment interests at the expense of the public. Agencies would need to prove specific harm that could result from disclosures before withholding docu-ments. While this policy has been in place since 2009, the legislation would ensure future administrations honor this objective for openness.
The process of obtaining FOIA re-cords would be much more efficient.
Citizens and journalists would receive requested information in a more timely fashion and would be updated on the status of their request or reason for denial. Federal agencies would be allowed to withhold information on policy deliberations for only 25 years – currently, there is no limit.
More records would be available. The legislation would require
agencies to post frequently requested information online. This will give citizens and journalists more timely access to key information and a deeper understanding of what the government is doing – or not doing.
Why is this important? The Freedom of Information Act
remains a powerful, though currently inefficient, tool to obtain public infor-mation. Last year, several key stories were brought to light as a result of reporters’ FOIA record requests.
The Associated Press was able to show that people accused of Nazi war crimes had continued receiving Social Security payments after leaving our country. In another instance, a reporter reviewing military ballistics tests found that the Marine Corps had issued armored vests that failed to protect against bullets – and 5,277 vests were quickly recalled, perhaps saving lives. Likewise, records obtained
See LITTLE, Page 11
colorado editor 11April 2015
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through FOIA revealed that some firefighter safety equipment failed to work properly when exposed to heat or moisture, rendering it inef-fective in crisis situations.
Without these records and journalists’ diligent research, none of this would have been brought to public attention. Our armed forces and firefighters may have been directly harmed as a result.
The Freedom of Information Act was enacted in 1966. It remains critical for creating and preserving an open and accountable govern-ment. However, it must be updated to keep up with changing technol-ogy and a persistent mindset within federal agencies that information belongs to the government not the general public.
Congress came very close to passing FOIA reform legislation last year before the end of the 113th Congress. Now, members in both the Senate and House are working in a bi-partisan fashion to move these bills forward in the new Congress. The Senate Ju-diciary Committee unanimously approved its FOIA reform bill, S. 337, which is sponsored by Sena-tors John Cornyn, Patrick Leahy, and Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley. The House bill (H.R. 653), which is sponsored by Representatives Darrell Issa and Elijah Cummings, was reported out of committee last week. We applaud the bills’ sponsors and the congressional leadership for turning their attention to this good govern-ment legislation. We hope that this momentum bodes well for bipar-tisan, bicameral action early in the new Congress.
LITTLE Continued from Page 10
By Jeffrey A. RobertsCFOIC Executive Director
To prepare for a public bargaining session on April 13, representatives of the Jefferson County School District and the Jefferson County Education Association were meeting behind closed doors in small “working groups” to come up with recommen-dations.
This raises a question. How is it OK for these negotiators to meet privately?
Didn’t 70 percent of Colorado vot-ers last Election Day approve Propo-sition 104, requiring open collective bargaining negotiations in Colorado school districts?
Here’s how the ballot question was phrased: “Shall there be a change to the Colorado Revised Statutes requiring any meeting of a board of education, or any meeting between any representative of a school district and any representative of employ-ees, at which a collective bargaining agreement is discussed to be open to the public?”
Amy Weber, the school district’s human resources director, said that under the Open Meetings Law, “so long as we don’t have more than two district representatives participat-ing in a working group, the meeting doesn’t have to be public.”
The small-group meetings, she added, are forums “to generate ideas,” not negotiating sessions.
“We have a lot to do. Our entire contract is open for negotiations,” Weber said. “Our board (of educa-tion) has said that we effectively need a blank slate, we need a fresh start and to rethink the entire contract. With the sheer volume of work to accomplish, we think having groups to generate options is an effective way to do that.”
It’s true that for local public bodies (such as a school board), Colorado’s Open Meetings Law, aka the Sun-shine Law, only applies to meetings of three or more members or a quorum, whichever is fewer.
Proposition 104 amended the “local public body” definition in the Sunshine Law to include “mem-bers of a board of education, school
administration personnel, or a combination thereof who are involved in a meeting with a representative of employees at which a collective bargaining agreement is discussed.”
Media lawyer Steve Zansberg, an expert in the Open Meetings Law and president of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, said the language in the new statute is “ambiguous” and can be interpreted two ways:
“On one hand,” Zansberg said, “it is possible that the law merely meant to add members of school adminis-tration to the definition of a school board for purposes of its quorum requirement, so a meeting of less than three members of that expanded body does not constitute a quorum.”
This interpretation supports Jeffco’s contention that Proposition 104 doesn’t cover meetings involving only two school district representatives.
Alternatively, however, “Proposition 104 defines a local public body as any group that meets with representa-tives of the teachers union to discuss a labor contract, regardless of how small a group attend the meeting,” Zansberg said. “Under the latter in-terpretation, there can be no meeting of two members of the school board or its administration with union representatives that is not conducted in the open.”
So what did the main proponent of Proposition 104, the Independence Institute, intend it to cover?
Jon Caldara, president of the free-market think tank (a CFOIC mem-ber organization), said Proposition 104 is about the negotiation process, not the number of negotiators who are present at a meeting.
“If it was just one negotiator on each side, that should still be open to the public,” Caldara said. “Otherwise, it would be too easy to skirt, which is what I think ( Jeffco) is trying to do.”
He added, “I don’t know how any person can look at this and not think it’s at least violating the spirit of transparency.”
Weber said everything discussed in the working group meetings will be addressed in the public negotiating sessions.
When’s a meeting, a meeting?Do closed-door Jeffco ‘working groups’ violate Prop. 104 requirement for open negotiations?
12 colorado editor April 2015
and was too long.“Must find way to reduce length
of the awards,” one respondent wrote.
Some alternatives the contest committee is seeking feedback on, include:
• Categories with few entries or only one newspaper to be moved to next higher class with other entries/newspapers.
• Eliminate some of the entry categories, notably those with zero or very few entries historically.
• Eliminate one or two newspa-per classes. Currently there are 10 classes newspapers compete in —one monthly class, five weeklies, and four dailies.
• Possibility of only having first- and second-place winners (elimi-nating third-place).
• Allow all associate members to participate in contest. Currently as-sociate newspapers without a sister newspaper that is a regular member cannot enter the contest.
• Standardize the submission process: PDFs only. The CPA has a hard time getting enough judges for the contest, but when judges have to open up an entire issuu.com entry and search for a story or navigate past pay walls on websites, it is an extra burden. It took a month lon-ger to judge the 2014 contest than expected.
SURVEY Continued from Page 1
Want to be part of the plan?Want to have more say than filling out a survey? The convention and con-test committees are seek-ing members. If interest-ed, contact Jerry Raehal at [email protected].
making such records available) with redactions, if necessary.
“Even in regard to law en-forcement officers, the public is entitled to as much information as possible in those internal af-fairs files,” said Steve Zansberg, a media attorney and president of the Colorado Freedom of Infor-mation Coalition. “With respect to judicial department employees, these records are expressly and entirely off limits.”
The question, Zansberg said, is why should the records of judicial branch employees be treated dif-ferently than those of other state government employees?
Teresa Taylor Tate, assistant legal counsel for the judicial branch, explained the differ-ences between CORA and the proposed new rules by noting that the judiciary has “a variety of different personnel systems and a variety of personnel rules.”
The branch employs 3,800 people in courts and probation, and many others in agencies such as the State Public Defender and the Office of the Child’s Repre-sentative.
Colorado Supreme Court Jus-tice Monica Márquez, who chairs the Public Access Committee, said CORA was “a starting point” for the subcommittee that devel-oped the new regulations, “but this was not intended to be an exact mirror of CORA … Judicial branch documents are unique in many ways and different in many ways from executive branch docu-ments.”
The new judicial branch rules will cover all department agencies except for the Judicial Discipline Commission and the Independent Ethics Commission. Márquez said a public hearing on the new rules will be held in the fall before the high court formally adopts the rules.
She added, however, that Chief Justice Nancy Rice likely will adopt a version of the rules ap-proved Wednesday as an interim directive “as early as May 1.”
Some other provisions of the new rules also deviate from CORA. The rules say, for ex-ample, that “work product” docu-ments must not be disclosed.
These include “preliminary drafts and discussion cop-ies of documents that express a decision, determination, or conclusion” by the judicial branch. Agencies covered by CORA waive that disclosure exemption when their final decisions make reference to work product docu-ments.
Also different: The custodian of a judicial branch record has discretion to determine whether a record may be copied; there is no cap on charges for research and retrieval of documents; and cus-todians have seven calendar days to provide records (and another 14 calendar days if extenuating circumstances exist).
CORA requires that records be made available for inspection im-mediately, if they are readily avail-able, or within three working days (up to seven days for extenuating circumstances).
Denials of access, under the new provisions, can be appealed to a district court.
RECORDSContinued from Page 1
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