Transparency advocates say even though the outcome of the secret ballot process is being made public for the first time, the bill-ranking system still runs afoul of the open meetings law and shuts the public out of a process that lawmakers use to help decide how to spend their tax dollars.
Scott Franz is a government watchdog reporter and photographer from Steamboat Springs. He spent the last seven years covering politics and government for the Steamboat Pilot & Today, a daily newspaper in northwest Colorado. His reporting in Steamboat stopped a police station from being built in a city park, saved a historic barn from being destroyed and helped a small town pastor quickly find a kidney donor. His favorite workday in Steamboat was Tuesday, when he could spend many of his mornings skiing untracked powder and his evenings covering city council meetings. Scott received his journalism degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is an outdoorsman who spends at least 20 nights a year in a tent. He spoke his first word, 'outside', as a toddler in Edmonds, Washington. Scott visits the Great Sand Dunes, his favorite Colorado backpacking destination, twice a year. Scott's reporting is part of Capitol Coverage, a collaborative public policy reporting pr
Lawmakers expected the Office of Gun Violence Prevention to distribute at least $50,000 in grants to help communities curb gun deaths. But 18 months after the office was created and given a $3 million annual budget, records show it hasn’t distributed a single grant dollar.
State Rep. Tom Sullivan said Tuesday he was “saddened” to hear the office’s director is not accepting interview requests to talk about the tragedy in Colorado Springs.
Democrats who control the state legislature are increasingly using a survey they fill out in secret to help determine whether bills live or die. The results are kept from the public, raising questions about transparency and potential violations of the state’s sunshine law.