May 21, 2009 09:13 PM UTC

Judge finds 'reasonable belief' CSU broke law in Blake appointment

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• by: BobMoore

(This seems to be getting kind of serious, doesn’t it? – promoted by Colorado Pols)

FRIDAY MORNING UPDATE: Here’s a link to the Coloradoan story from this morning wrapping up Thursday’s activity:

http://www.coloradoan.com/arti…

Several posters were interested in Gov. Ritter’s stance. Here it is:

Through his spokesman, Gov. Bill Ritter reiterated his support for Blake’s selection.

“Joe Blake is a strong leader who is committed to leading CSU forward. The governor continues to believe CSU will be very well-served with Joe as chancellor,” Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer said.

“We understand there are questions and concerns about the process, and we look forward to a quick resolution based on the judge’s review of the tapes,” Dreyer said.

Also, here’s the Chieftain story:

http://www.chieftain.com/artic…

See below for all of my Thursday posts.

It’s just the first step in the lawsuit, but a judge ruled Thursday morning that there was “reasonable belief” that CSU’s Board of Governors violated the state open meetings law when it named Joe Blake as the sole finalist for chancellor.

You can read an early version of Trevor Hughes’ coverage here: http://www.coloradoan.com/arti…

The judge is requiring that CSU give him the recording of the entire four-hour executive session May 5 that led to Blake’s selection. He’ll review the recordings and can order some or all of the contents to be made public if he finds a violation of the Colorado Open Meetings Law.

I’ll update later.

2 p.m. update, in the form of an additional thought:

In excluding the public from the chancellor selection process, the Board of Governors’  position has been “trust us,” and that was echoed in court Thursday. But the board’s own recordings and filings show that members have repeatedly violated the law in the selection process. They need to abandon the “trust us” approach and involve the public, as the law requires, in making critical decisions.”

2:40 p.m. update, 3 groups call for CSU to restart chancellor search process. Release follows.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

May 21, 2009

CONTACT:    Chantell Taylor – 303-626-2100 / ctaylor@coloradoforethics.org

                       Jenny Flanagan – 303-292-2163 / JFlanagan@CommonCause.org

                       Steve Fenberg – 720-244-2062 / steve@neweracolorado.org

COALITION CALLS FOR RESTART OF CSU CHANCELLOR SEARCH

Today, Colorado Ethics Watch, Colorado Common Cause and New Era Colorado, joined together to call on the CSU Board of Governors to rescind its closed door decision naming Joe Blake as the sole finalist for CSU chancellor. The groups also called upon the Board of Governors to start a new, transparent search process to consider a number of qualified applicants, including Mr. Blake.  The group decried the process as tainted by a lack of transparency and apparent conflicts of interest.

Mr. Blake participated in the controversial decision in December 2008 to split the chancellor position from the position of president of the Fort Collins campus of Colorado State University.  On April 29, 2009, he formally submitted his application for the new chancellor position.  On May 6, in a closed-door meeting that was called in haste while the legislature was considering a bill to change the process for selecting a chancellor, the Board of Governors voted to name Mr. Blake as the sole finalist for the position.  The process that resulted in the selection of Mr. Blake as the sole finalist and denied students and the public a meaningful opportunity to provide input on this critical hiring decision, and it has been challenged as a possible violation of Colorado’s Open Meetings Law.

“The process smacks of favoritism and insider dealing,” said Chantell Taylor, director of Colorado Ethics Watch. “In his capacity as vice chair of the board, Mr. Blake participated in creating the lucrative new chancellor position then submitted his own application and was selected as the sole-finalist in a rushed, closed-door session that apparently violated open meetings laws. This is an assault on principles of open, honest government.”

Jenny Flanagan, executive director of Common Cause, said the public has a right to a fair and open process in the decisions that affect their community.  “The Governing Board knew their closed-door meetings would offend the public but went ahead anyway.  Blake may be the right candidate for this position, but this was not the right process.  The governing board must take steps to repair the situation.”

“The closed-door selection process flies in the face of everything higher education should stand for-fair and open discourse with integrity,” said Steve Fenberg, executive director of New Era Colorado. “These decisions should include the input of students, faculty, and the broader community of citizens of Colorado-the very populations our public universities and academic institutions exist to serve.”

Colorado Ethics Watch is a nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog group that holds public officials and organizations legally accountable for unethical activities that undermine the integrity of state and local government.  For more information, please contact Chantell Taylor at (303) 626-2100 or visit www.ColoradoforEthics.org.

Colorado Common Cause is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working for open, honest, and accountable government. For more information, please contact Jenny Flanagan at (303) 292-2163 or visit www.ColoradoCommonCause.org

New Era Colorado is a non-profit organization reinventing politics for our generation through innovative social and political action. For more information, please contact Steve Fenberg at (720) 244-2062 or visit www.NewEraColorado.org.

UPDATE 7:13 p.m. Here’s CSU’s response to the call for a search re-do.

Colorado State University System

Statement

May 21, 2009

The Colorado State University System Board of Governors stands behind its process and firmly believes it complied with the Colorado Open Meetings law with regard to its May 5, 2009 discussions and interview of Joe Blake. Mr. Blake recused himself from the board as he was being considered as a candidate/applicant for the chancellor position as recommended by the 15-member search committee.

There have been opinions expressed about the search process, but the facts are that the board took steps to ensure the process leading up to and through the five-month search was open and that as many voices from constituent groups had the opportunity to be heard. The board asked two respected Coloradans, Dick Robinson and Diane Evans, to facilitate a series of open CSU stakeholder forums around the state and on campuses to solicit input on desired attributes for a new chancellor. The input was recorded in a report that was used to create the position description and it was given to the search committee to help guide them in identifying qualified candidates.

The board decided to not hire an outside search firm, which saved the university up to $100,000. Instead it appointed a 15-member search committee comprised of highly regarded and respected business and civic leaders who could go out on their own and recruit qualified candidates. Every search committee meeting was publicly noticed so that the public could attend and share comments with the committee or hear the committee’s discussions during public sessions.

The search committee reviewed nearly two dozen applications, interviewed three candidates and unanimously decided to forward two candidates to the board for its consideration.

During the board’s interview process, student and faculty representatives were involved in the entire executive session where the search committee presented its report on the recommended candidates; there was a discussion of candidates, the candidates were interviewed; and there were post-interview deliberations. Most importantly, student and faculty board representatives asked questions of the candidates and expressed their opinions during the interview and discussion stages.

In the spirit of openness, a recording of the full boards discussion, interview and deliberation relating to Mr. Joe Blake as a candidate was voluntarily released by the board, May 20, 2009, so that the public would have the opportunity to hear the basis of the full board’s (includes student and faculty representatives) decision to select Mr. Blake as the finalist.

Today there was an initial hearing about whether the board complied with Colorado Open Meetings law in its chancellor candidate interview process with Mr. Joe Blake. The judge decided he will review in private the entire recording to determine if further disclosure is required.

The opinions about the board’s process have nothing to do with decision to name Mr. Joe Blake a finalist for chancellor, in fact, several entities have publicly supported the board’s selection of Mr. Joe Blake.