Apparently, transparency is for suckers.

Two freshman Democrats have filed a lawsuit against the leadership of both parties in the state House of Representatives alleging routine violations of the Colorado Open Meetings Law.

We’re no strangers to writing about violations of Colorado’s sunshine laws – usually when they involve elected officials at the local level. But for the folks who actually write the laws of the state to be accused of violating them reinforces our ugliest perceptions of legislators as an entitled class of hypocrites.

Reps. Elisabeth Epps and Bob Marshall filed the lawsuit, apparently in a last-ditch attempt to draw some attention to a problem that hardly anyone is willing to acknowledge, much less fix.

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“Plaintiffs were assured, separately and repeatedly, by House Leadership that these unlawful practices would be properly addressed. Unfortunately, violations persist,” the lawsuit states.

“I really think the big thing is this is meant to be a loving intervention with an alcoholic that just doesn’t want to change,” Marshall told the Denver Post’s Seth Klamann. “They can’t do it. We tried, independently, and again – there is no moral fault here because leadership inherited this huge swamp. And it’s just too ingrained and feted for them to change on their own, (that) is my belief. And our colleagues show up and they’re told this is how it’s always been.”

The complaint alleges a variety of violations – from the use of messaging apps like Signal that lawmakers use to hide communications between colleagues to meetings involving substantial discussions about public policy that are never properly noticed even when there are enough members of a legislative committee present to constitute a quorum.

The public is supposed to be given full and timely notice of meetings of public bodies with a quorum of members and provide a recording or meeting minutes for pubic inspection.

The suit contends legislative aides are directed to omit or disguise shady meetings from lawmakers’ calendars.

The effect of this coordinated dodge is that the formation of public policy – of obvious public interest – routinely happens in the dark. That’s the opposite of the intent of sunshine laws.

It sounds as if this is a long-standing tradition in the House (and let’s not kid ourselves; it’s probably the same in the Senate), which speaks to the insidious nature of flouting sunshine laws. The public doesn’t know what it doesn’t know even when it’s supposed to.

Without insider knowledge of how bills are vetted – and the temerity of two representatives to pull back the curtain on the inner workings of an exclusive club – we’d probably never know that state lawmakers like to do a lot of policy legwork out of view of the public’s prying eyes.

It’s infuriating really. Every lawmaker in America talks about the importance of transparency. Too many then lock the doors to the kitchen while the sausage is being made.

A Denver court will decide if the allegations in the lawsuit have merit, but lawmakers would be wise to begin thinking of how they’re going to enforce transparency laws among themselves.

The cat’s out of the bag.

Grand Junction Daily Sentinel Editorial Board

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