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January 03, 2011 06:04 PM UTC

What Lies Beneath in Garfield County?

  • 10 Comments
  • by: gerry

The concept of government transparency is simple.

Citizens have the right to know what their government is doing in their name.

Colorado passed the Colorado Open Records Act CORA) to shed light on decisions by local and state governments.

The intent and spirit of the law was to hold government accountable to the people. It’s supposed to be easy and affordable for anybody to request and examine documents.

Unfortunately, some of our elected officials would prefer that you and I don’t know what goes on behind the closed doors at the county building. My recent experience with a CORA request of outgoing Garfield County Commissioner Tresi Houpt can only be described as frustrating, time consuming, and expensive.    

I filed a CORA with Garfield County and then Commissioner Houpt on October 18. I was investigating whether a push poll paid for by an environmental group was in any way being used to exploit public health fears or shape the outcome of an upcoming COGCC hearing.

I didn’t file these requests with the intent of creating more work for already overworked officials and staff; and in the interests of full and complete disclosure, I am an unapologetic  supporter of responsible energy development .  

I requested additional information because I believe in the public’s right to full and complete disclosure from their elected officials and their government.

CORA requires that requested documents be made available for inspection within three to ten days of the request.  However, what unfolded for me was a full month of delays that began with a response letter from Houpt, which read, in part, that she would have to consult with the IT department to “determine whether or not the information requested can be obtained, how long it will take to achieve production, if at all, and how much it will cost to comply.”

That cost was estimated to be over $2500.  I was aghast. Twenty-five hundred dollars to pull the “sent” items folder from Houpt’s county computer?

Finally, a full month after I filed the request,  I received the information. Lots of it; and in a form that doesn’t make it easy to sort the wheat from the chaff and accompanied by a letter about the redaction file from Garfield County Attorney Don DeFord that baldly states that if I want to know the details of the redaction file I can meet Garfield County in court.    

What’s so time consuming, top secret, and expensive about a county official’s interaction with a short list of individuals in a snapshot of time regarding a single issue?      

When information is withheld and only given out under threat of legal action, and to those with the funds to get it, people naturally think you have something to hide.

I intend to pursue the answers to these and other questions, and I hope by doing so the residents of communities like Garfield County will have a better understanding of those who are deserving of  the public trust and those who are not.    

Is GARCO & Houpt complying with the spirit of CORA?

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10 thoughts on “What Lies Beneath in Garfield County?”

  1. it might help if you provided a little explanation of how your investigation of “. . . whether a push poll paid for by an environmental group was in any way being used to exploit public health fears or shape the outcome of an upcoming COGCC hearing” would in any way be related to the official email correspondence of a county commissioner.  It’s just not clear from what you wrote – at least not clear to me – and could lead some readers to think your CORA request was perhaps some kind of harassment.    

    1. It’s your obligation to draft a specific enough CORA request to get the documents you want without the exorbitant cost.  The less specific your request (i.e. a ‘fishing expedition’) the longer it will take, the more it will cost, and the less useful information you’ll get.  

        1. Requesting all emails is a fishing expedition.  Asking for files electronically, or the ability to review them first in person, helps reduce costs.  Then you can go and flag only those you want copies of.  Just a tip, from an unabashed skeptic of the ‘Drill Everywhere Now’ theme.  

          1. http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/do…

            …ensure public access to the public records without unreasonable delay or unreasonable cost

            Sounds like that’s what happened. If you request thousands of pages of information, it’s going to cost you thousands of dollars. In the statute is says that the cost of printing should not exceed $1.25 per page.

            Maybe gerry should try reading the law before getting all frazzled when it’s enforced correctly.

  2. has been an excellent commissioner and representative from Garfield County (not my residence). She was defeated by a bunch of lying repubs because she is very outspoken. Were it not for Tresi the O&G regs would have no teeth. She embodies courage.

    1. Tresi Houpt is a true hero to thousands of Coloradoans whose lives and futures were trashed by the natural gas boom in Garfield county.

      Tresi stood firmly beside the people who were sickened, those whose property was destroyed or devalued, and the hundreds of thousands of sportsmen and outdoor enthusiasts, concerned about the impact of an industrial gas play in the middle of some of the most valuable “natural capital” in the nation.

      She was, is, and will continue to be our champion. She is greatly loved and admired by the constituents she never abandoned.

      Oh, and by the way, “gerry”…Why don’t you wait until you have actually read the material before you write a diary. As it is, it sounds like pointless whining. Aren’t you one of those,”pay for government services yourself” kind of persons? It sounds to me like you expect the government to subsidize your curiousity.

      1. Tresi Houpt is definitely one of my heroes. She always made sure that the voices of her constituents were heard and understood at the level of the county and the level of the state. And she took a lot of heat for it.

        The powerful have many tools at their disposal to ensure that their concerns get translated in policy. Tresi made sure that the less powerful were heard before any decision was made.

        I wish I had the guts to take politically risky positions like she consistently did.

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