A Douglas County resident opened a new front in his transparency crusade against the county’s school district Tuesday, filing a lawsuit seeking to shake loose documents he argues are public record.

The latest suit revolves around four binders, a Facebook photo and a retreat. The Douglas County school board’s four new members were pictured holding the binders at what they’ve described as a training retreat in November, shortly after they won an election that swung control of the board to a more conservative majority.

The binders, and their contents, have drawn scrutiny in recent months among residents critical of the new members, and resident Robert Marshall, who’s also running for a state House seat, filed a records request seeking their release. 

The district’s records manager, Ioana Marin, denied Marshall’s request. While he argues the binders are public record, Marin and the district have said the materials were used by the newly elected board members before they actually became public officials and before they became subject to the state’s public records laws.

Because they haven’t been released, the binders’ contents are unclear. The board’s newly elected vice chair, Christy Williams, said in a Facebook post that the binders contained information about how to conduct public meetings and about the state’s public records and open-meeting laws.

After Marin reiterated her rejection last month, Marshall now wants a Douglas County District Court judge to determine the status of the binders. 

It’s his second suit against the district: In early February, he sued the school board, and its four new members, alleging they had broken Colorado’s open-meeting law in the run-up to their contentious decision to fire then-Superintendent Corey Wise. That lawsuit is still ongoing, though a Douglas County judge issued a preliminary ruling siding with Marshall in March.

The board’s four newly elected leaders have denied any wrongdoing related to Wise’s firing, and they’ve said their discussions about Wise’s tenure complied with state law. 

The two lawsuits are connected by more than just the parties involved. In this latest suit, Marshall links the four new members’ apparent understanding of the open-meeting law – which he contends they violated – with the material in the binders and the training they received at the retreat.

Part of that training came from Will Trachman. Trachman, a conservative attorney, was then hired as outside counsel by the school board at its first post-election meeting in December, with the new members’ four votes trumping dissent from their three peers. Trachman later resigned.

While the district has said that the binders were used before the members became public officials, Marshall and his attorney, Steve Zansberg, argue the four board leaders have kept the binders “as training documents and reference (since) they took office.” Those members have not attended other training sessions, Marshall and Zansberg allege, and the binders “have been ‘maintained or kept’ by these public officials ‘for use in the exercise of’ their official functions. They are, therefore, ‘public records.'”

Reached for comment Wednesday, Zansberg, who is also representing Marshall in the open-meeting litigation, declined to comment beyond what was contained in the lawsuit. A school district spokeswoman also declined to comment.