craigdailypress.com

Last Thursday, county commissioners discussed an interesting letter that Moffat County library trustee John Ponikvar wrote to a fellow board member.

The letter outlines some specific points of contention between Ponikvar and the board member, which makes for some fascinating reading about interpersonal relationships on the board.

The only problem is that commissioners weren't supposed to see it and had no business discussing it; opening a can of worms that could possibly set back the relationship between the two boards.

Commissioners called a special meeting to discuss the signing of a lease for a van to transport Moffat County Jail inmates. Discussion of the library board was not on the agenda. Commissioners violated the Colorado Open Meetings Act by talking about the letter without posting it as an agenda item in advance.

That's troubling in itself, but it happened with Kathleen Taylor, the county attorney, in attendance. At some point during the discussion, she should have been able to intervene and advise Les Hampton and Darryl Steele that they were in violation of state law. Commissioner Marianna Raftopoulos was not in attendance.

During the special meeting, Hampton made a motion to remove a library trustee from the board. Steele erred in seconding the motion, even though he stipulated that he was only doing so for the sake of discussion. Steele should have let the motion die for lack of a second.

When the Daily Press discovered the discussion had taken place and requested a copy of the letter, Hampton initially said he wasn't sure where the letter was. The county attorney then said the board of commissioners was not the custodian of the letter -- the library was.

In Colorado, libraries handle their own open records requests. However, she later agreed with a Colorado Press Association assertion that the letter was a public document and released it Monday evening.

Just as troubling was Hampton's reaction on Tuesday. Rather than apologizing for breaking the law, he instead attacked the way rules are set up so that commissioners have to do their business in an open forum. With nearly four full years of experience under his belt, we would think Hampton would appreciate why those rules are in place and hold himself accountable to open meetings laws.

There's a lesson here for the new commissioners soon to take office. Rather than interpreting open meetings requirements as technicalities, public officials should adopt them as minimum standards.

Hampton's gambit looks like he was trying to sneak something past the public, which makes the entire board look bad.

Meanwhile the "most disturbing letter" (as Hampton described it) at the center of the controversy was something that Ponikvar intended for the library board only. Now that it's out in public, we wonder how it's going to affect the resolution of several lingering issues confronting the library board.