Special counsel calls for further look
An attorney appointed to investigate alleged open meeting violations by four current and three former Loveland City councilors has found that there is enough evidence to support a criminal prosecution in the case.
Christopher Gregory, who was appointed a week ago, delivered his findings to the City Council at a special meeting on Tuesday.
“What I found, just reviewing both some reporting in the news media, as well as documents, and I was able to interview a member of the city manager’s staff, is that it appears that there’s a pretty clear set of violations of these public meeting expectations,” Gregory told members.
At issue are two letters penned last April by Councilor Steve Olson in opposition to a Colorado Senate bill amending state urban renewal law. At the time, City Council was in the midst of deliberations over the controversial Centerra South urban renewal plan, with a decisive vote scheduled for May 2.
Olson approached other members one-on-one about signing the letters, he told the Reporter Herald in December. The first letter was signed by six members (Olson, Dana Foley, John Fogle, Pat Mcfall, Don Overcash and Richard Ball), was sent to Gov. Jared Polis on April 19.
A second letter was signed by those members, plus Samson, and sent to members of the Colorado General Assembly on April 27. Both were printed on City Council letterhead, though Jon Mallo and Mayor Jacki Marsh were not asked to sign either and did not see them before they were sent.
The attorney said that he based his report on filings in a lawsuit filed by resident Bill Jensen alleging the open meeting violations. Jensen’s suit was dismissed on procedural grounds last week, but Gregory largely supported the merit of his claims.
He said it seems clear that the series of one-on-one meetings to sign the letters constitute a non-public meeting, in contradiction of both Colorado open
meeting law and Loveland city charter guidelines. He said further that City Council members were warned against the practice earlier in a March 2023 email from then-loveland City Attorney Moses Garcia.
“Having one council member talk to another council member and passing the information along in a serial or daisy chain arrangement, that can’t be an end-around open meetings law,” Gregory explained. “And that’s essentially what Mr. Garcia was getting at with the email that he’d sent to the council members.”
Gregory went on to recommend to the City Council that the case be referred to a law enforcement agency for a criminal investigation and then, if warranted, criminal prosecution in municipal court. He warned that the consequences for proceeding down that path could be “grave,” up to removal of the four members.
Following Gregory’s report, two councilors targeted in the case were skeptical of his findings and had strong words about his investigative process. Dana Foley called his report “horrible” and apologized to residents in chambers for “wasting $10,000 on this piece of crap.”
The five city councilors responsible for Gregory’s appointment were more subdued in their responses, but seemed to favor going forward with a law enforcement investigation. However, Krenning and Laura Light-kovacs both wanted to wait for read Gregory’s full written report.
Council also agreed to wait until City Attorney Vince Junglas has read and processed the report. Junglas told members that the case of City Council prosecuting its own members is “uncharted territory” for his office, and he will have to carefully consider how to proceed to ensure that the process is neutral, conflict-free and fair to all involved.
City Council did not take any action on Gregory’s findings on Tuesday, but tentatively agreed to hold another special meeting on Friday in order to take action.
The statute of limitations on the open meeting violations is due to expire at the one-year mark, or in late April.