LAWS

given full and timely notice.

Finally, the laws say the minutes of any meeting of a state public body shall be recorded and made available to the public.

Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate regularly hold closed-door caucus meetings that the public isn’t informed of beforehand. at’s been a yearslong practice at the Capitol.

Lawmakers’ use of Signal, which was rst released in 2014, has become more widespread over the past two or three years.

Marshall and Epps just nished their rst year at the Capitol after being elected in November 2022. Epps repeatedly clashed with House Democratic leadership during the 2023 legislative session, speci cally McCluskie, with the tensions aring on the nal day of the lawmaking term during a House Democratic caucus meeting.

In an impassioned speech to the rest of her caucus, Epps directly criticized McCluskie’s leadership, saying she had been too lenient with Republicans and had allowed lastminute bills to be forced through by Democrats.

“You asked to do this,” Epps said. “I’m asking you to do much, much more.”

Marshall has a history of bringing open meetings lawsuits. He sued the Douglas County School Board in 2022 over the ring of its superintendent when a conservative majority took over the board, arguing there had been illegal secret meetings over the decision.

A judge agreed that the four new board members held “daisy chain,” or one-on-one meetings, in advance of the ring in violation of public meetings laws.

Steve Zansberg, a well-known Colorado media attorney, led the lawsuit on behalf of Epps and Marshall. He also represented Marshall in the Douglas County lawsuit. Zansberg also represents e Sun and the Colorado Freedom of Infor-

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In April, Marshall asked the Legislative Council, a committee of legislative leaders, to create an interim committee on Colorado’s open meetings laws and how they apply to the legislature, including emails and electronic communications.

“ is request comes out of concern that the legislature’s become very sloppy with the Open Meeting Law and Colorado Open Records Act,” Marshall told the committee. “We work for the people and if the people want to see what we’re doing, they put a referendum in place to know what’s going on.” e council never voted on Marshall’s proposal, e ectively rejecting it.

Senate President Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder, told Marshall that the issue should be addressed in a bill in the future.

“I think the open records laws and open meetings laws are very confusing,” Fenberg said. “And, oftentimes, I think folks don’t know how to actually comply, especially in the modern day. So I do think this is an area education.

Now, The Colorado Sun co-owns this and other Colorado Community Media newspapers as a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy. The Sun is CCM’s partner for that the legislature needs to discuss.” en, on the nal day of the legislature’s 2023 session, Marshall said he intended to take action on what he called “hypocritical” violations of sunshine laws by his fellow lawmakers. is story is from e Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned news outlet based in Denver and covering the state. For more, and to support e Colorado Sun, visit coloradosun.com. e Colorado Sun is a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy, owner of Colorado Community Media. statewide news.

“It was 10 times worse than anything the Douglas County School Board had been doing,” he said.

He said the lawmakers had a “holier than thou” mentality, criticizing other branches of government for a lack of transparency while not looking at themselves.

“ at’s a hypocrisy that’s very difcult for me to bear,” he said.

No hearings on the lawsuit brought by Epps and Marshall had been scheduled as of earlier this week.

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