Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee killed a bill on Thursday that would have curtailed the use of nondisclosure agreements for state employees in the name of transparency.

“Your bill sweeps with too broad of a sword where a more nuanced approach might be noted, so I can’t support your bill in the form that it’s in,” the committee chair, Sen. Pete Lee, D-Colorado Springs, told the measure’s sponsor.

First-term Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, R-Brighton, authored Senate Bill 23 after reading about how an employee of Secretary of State Jena Griswold left her position after roughly one year, ending with a settlement agreement stipulating both parties “will not make any disparaging remarks” about each other.

“State government employees are public servants. They’re hired to serve the public,” Kirkmeyer told the committee. “Nondisclosure agreements raise both ethical and legal implications. A government employee should not be allowed to have their speech silenced.”

SB23 would have prohibited the state from requiring employees to abide by nondisclosure or non-disparagement agreements, declaring such provisions against public policy and therefore unenforceable. There would have been exceptions for confidentiality in the cases of employee privacy, federal or state rules that require nondisclosure, or for investigations and security purposes.

Kirkmeyer quoted from two other employee separation agreements – and provided them to Colorado Politics – that contained prohibitions on discussing the employees’ separations or allegations against an agency. One of the agreements applied to Daniel Shodell, formerly with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and Mindy Masias, the former chief of staff for the Office of the State Court Administrator.

Masias played a central role in a series of reports in February describing how allegations of misconduct in the Judicial Department went unreported and uninvestigated. Masias received a multimillion dollar contract supposedly in exchange for her silence.

Supporters of SB23 included the Colorado Broadcasters Association, which said the proposal struck an appropriate balance between protecting state employees’ interests and allowing them to speak freely about government, and also Miller Hudson.

Hudson, a former state representative and Colorado Politics opinion contributor, cited his experience attending disciplinary hearings for public employees in asserting that nondisclosure is a tool to muzzle workers.

“I think it’s important to remember that when an employer asks for an NDA, there’s something they’re trying to hide. There’s something they don’t want the public to know. But who they’re really hiding it from is you, the legislature,” Hudson testified.

He added that he knows some employees who “carry to their grave bitterness about the way that they were dealt with” because they were unable to tell anyone.

In response to questions, Kirkmeyer said she did not include local governments in the bill because the title was too narrow, but she supported the idea of covering localities.

Lee, however, worried about circumstances in which the state had a legitimate interest in confidentiality that SB23 may not shield under its exceptions. He mentioned trade secrets, technological data, personal financial information and state-related business details.

Kirkmeyer indicated prior to the vote that she was open to further safeguards. Other states that have considered bans on nondisclosure agreements have generally targeted those that stifle allegations of sexual misconduct, in light of the #MeToo movement.

Sens. John Cooke, R-Greeley, and Bob. Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, voted to advance the bill, while Lee and Sens. Julie Gonzales and Robert Rodriguez, both Democrats from Denver, voted against.

Following the vote, Kirkmeyer said the Democrats had taken a stand “to further preserve secrecy in government. I have no idea what they are trying to cover up.”

She continued: “Because Coloradans have a right to know what public empolyees are doing and what their government is up to, I am starting work now to find a Democrat legislator that will join with me on this bill for 2022.”