Thornton’s mayor left half of city council in the dark about a taxpayer-funded trip to D.C.

The may­or of Thorn­ton last month left half the city coun­cil in the dark when she went to Wash­ing­ton, D.C. on a tax­pay­er-fund­ed trip, spark­ing con­cerns about trans­paren­cy and poten­tial vio­la­tions of the state’s sun­shine laws.

On Aug. 24, May­or Jan Kul­mann attend­ed a White House event host­ed by First Lady Mela­nia Trump, cel­e­brat­ing a cen­tu­ry of women’s suf­frage and fea­tur­ing art from a Thorn­ton student.

But it was only when Kul­mann was on her way back to Col­orado that half the coun­cil found out she had spo­ken to four mem­bers about it, leav­ing the rest of them clueless.

“It was a secret vote,” coun­cil mem­ber Jacque Phillips said at Tuesday’s coun­cil meet­ing, adding, “what­ev­er those secret con­ver­sa­tions were — those have got to be open and transparent.”

On Aug. 13, a city staffer emailed Kul­mann, ask­ing if the may­or had run this city-fund­ed trip by coun­cil before the staffer booked flights and lodg­ing, accord­ing to emails obtained by The Den­ver Post from a res­i­dent who filed an open records request.

“I offi­cial­ly have the OK from 5,” Kul­mann respond­ed a day lat­er, refer­ring to the five votes need­ed for a major­i­ty. She includ­ed her­self in that count.

Kul­mann told The Den­ver Post that she was not ask­ing for approval when she excit­ed­ly men­tioned the trip in sep­a­rate con­ver­sa­tions with coun­cil mem­bers soon after find­ing out about the trip.

“It was a poor choice of words on my side,” Kul­mann said, regard­ing the email.

The may­or cit­ed the city attorney’s advice at Tuesday’s meet­ing, say­ing she did not vio­late city char­ter since the bud­get already includes mon­ey for these types of trips — mean­ing Kul­mann did not need coun­cil approval before going.

“It was approved in the prop­er method,” she said.

But Phillips, along with the oth­er three mem­bers from south Thorn­ton, expressed con­cern that Kul­mann only went to her coun­cil allies for sup­port — a group Thorn­ton res­i­dents say are often referred to as “the block of five.”

Phillips won­dered what oth­er busi­ness was being con­duct­ed out­side coun­cil chambers.

“I don’t think we want be like D.C.,” Phillips said at the coun­cil meet­ing. “We are vot­ing togeth­er, open­ly, hon­est­ly and transparently.”

Kul­mann said she under­stands their frus­tra­tion, promis­ing to alert the entire coun­cil on trav­el deci­sions mov­ing forward.

Still, the may­or said she “feels like they’re bring­ing it up just for polit­i­cal reasons.”

Colorado’s sun­shine law requires “any state or local gov­ern­men­tal body to dis­cuss pub­lic busi­ness or to take for­mal action in meet­ings that are open to the public.”

Jeff Roberts, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Col­orado Free­dom of Infor­ma­tion Coali­tion, said the Thorn­ton sit­u­a­tion is a bit murky since Kul­mann may not have actu­al­ly need­ed approval to go on the trip.

“If (Kul­mann) thought she need­ed the approval and was try­ing to get it through these one-on-on meet­ings, you could make an argu­ment that that was a way to cir­cum­vent open meet­ings law,” Roberts said.

There is case law in some states sur­round­ing instances of elect­ed offi­cials using one-on-one meet­ings to come to a con­sen­sus with­out all speak­ing togeth­er, he said, but not in Colorado.

(Vis­it­ed 1 times, 1 vis­its today)



Tags: design TT Mod­ell­bahn TT H0 N schal­ten mod­elleisen­bahn bahn spiele­max preise 

Ein Reichsmarschall von Adolf Hitler hatte auch Märklin Modelleisenbahn Modelle > read more

Schreibe einen Kommentar