BOULDER, Colo. (AP) - The University of Colorado’s Board of Regents violated the state’s Open Records Act last year in not releasing the names of six finalists for the job as the system’s president, a state judge ruled.
The Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder had requested the information in May and July of 2019 and filed a lawsuit in September.
District Court Judge A. Bruce Jones ruled Friday that the Board of Regents failed to show that it properly denied the newspaper’s request. He ordered regents to turn over the names and application materials of the six finalists to the newspaper within 21 days.
“Judge Jones in his ruling upheld the public’s right to scrutinize the regents’ actions, as they are elected officials,” said Camera Senior Editor Julie Vossler-Henderson.
System leaders were “digesting the ruling and we’re considering our options,” spokesman Ken McConnellogue told the newspaper. He said he could not rule out CU appealing the decision and declined to comment further.
The crux of the lawsuit is whether the Board of Regents is required by Colorado law to make public a list of finalists for CU system president or if they can select and make public the name of just one finalist.
Finalists for chief executive positions - such as city managers, school district superintendents and university presidents - are public record under the Colorado Open Records Act.
“When a public institution like CU chooses its top leadership, the community should be told who is being seriously considered for the job so it can compare the finalists and ask questions about their qualifications and backgrounds,” Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition Executive Director Jeff Roberts wrote in an email to the Camera.
The regents, who are elected on a partisan basis, voted 5-4 in May to name Mark Kennedy as president after identifying him as the only finalist. He is a former president of the University of North Dakota and was a Republican member of the U.S. House from Minnesota from 2001 through 2007.
“Under the undisputed facts, and based on the statutory language, the Court concludes that six individuals were ‘finalists’ for the position,” Jones wrote.
“The judge read the law the way we’ve always read it, that it requires multiple finalists, not one finalist, to be named and their applications made public,” Roberts said. “We hope this ruling has an impact on other public universities and school districts that have named just one finalist when choosing their presidents and superintendents.”
System leaders are “digesting the ruling and we’re considering our options,” spokesman Ken McConnellogue told the newspaper. He said he could not rule out CU appealing the decision and declined to comment further.
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