New Lawsuit Alleging Douglas County School Board Members Broke Colorado Open Meetings Law In Firing Of Superintendent
DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) – An attorney and Douglas County resident has filed a lawsuit against four members of the school board, alleging they broke the state's open meetings law ahead of firing Superintendent Corey Wise.
Robert Marshall told CBS4 he filed the suit on Friday afternoon in District Court in the hopes a judge would stop the upcoming board meeting. That attempt was unsuccessful, but now he's hopeful a judge could potentially rule whether the four majority board members followed the law ahead of the meeting.
"The biggest concern was just the improper and unethical behavior of trying to circumvent the Colorado Sunshine Law," Marshall said.
In the lawsuit, Marshall alleges Board President Mike Peterson and Vice President Christy Williams contacted the three minority board members and disclosed they had met privately with counsel about Wise's employment. None of the three members received notice or a summary of the advice sought or given, the suit said. Marshall alleges the two majority members later presented an ultimatum to the superintendent and later violated the state's open meeting law by "acting in accordance with the ultimatum" and firing Wise.
"If this is allowed to stand, there really is no more Colorado Open Meeting Law," Marshall said.
While a spokesperson said the Douglas County School District is not commenting on the ongoing litigation, the members in question have defended their actions. In Friday's meeting, Peterson and Williams confirmed they met with legal counsel and Wise but maintained nothing was illegal or improper.
"We stand by the way we handled it," Peterson said.
According to the law, a meeting of three or more board members, at which public business is discussed or any formal action is taken is a public meeting, and the board members said they followed that.
"Because we are a local board, sunshine laws are that two of us can be together at any time without calling a public meeting," said Williams. "At no time was I with more than one other director at any given moment."
In Marshall's motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, he argues the board members' actions are what's known as a "walking quorum," or a series of gatherings among separate groups of members, each less than quorum size, where members discuss, act on, or vote on public business.
While the Wisconsin Supreme Court has recognized members of a governmental body can violate the state's open meeting law by participating in a walking quorum, Marshall says the issue has not been brought before a Colorado judge yet.
"One-on-one conversations, no more than two that's in the law, is meant to give an opening for the people to talk among each other one-on-one, but the whole point of the law is not to allow people to come to a collective decision behind closed doors," Marshall said.
Marshall is hoping a judge will ultimately agree. He said a ruling in his favor could result in a judge throwing out the board's decision or issuing an injunction.
"If we can get the court to give us a permanent injunction saying no, at least we can stop the board of education from doing it in the future and hopefully have precedence that no one else should," Marshall said.
According to Marshall, a preliminary injunction hearing will likely be held in district court within the next two weeks.
