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Lawyers: SFRB private sessions violate law
Aaron Hedge
Issue date: 4/27/09 Section: News
The body that makes student fee recommendations approved allocation of more than $1 million Monday --Â a vote that doesn't count because officials closed the meeting to the public after receiving what lawyers are calling bad advice from university legal counsel.
The Student Fee Review Board barred the public from its last two meetings by going into what is called "executive session" to discuss student government's budget for next year, which two Colorado attorneys say is a violation of state Sunshine rules, which dictate that public board meetings have to be open.
The SFRB, which is mostly made up of students, said they did so after receiving confirmation from CSU legal counsel that the action was legal.
Amy Parsons, the university's head legal adviser, said last week that the board was within its statutory rights to close the meetings because it doesn't qualify as a state public body, which, she said, exempts it from the Colorado Open Meetings Law.
Parsons said the only CSU board that is subject to the law is the university System Board of Governors.
The law states that "any board, committee, commission, or other advisory, policy-making, rule-making, decision-making, or formally constituted body of any state agency, state authority, governing board of a state institution of higher education ... and any public or private entity to which the state, or an official thereof, has delegated a governmental decision-making function but does not include persons on the administrative staff of the state public body."
The SFRB moves to approve fee packages before sending its decisions to the BOG.
"As it would apply to the CSU System, that definition only includes the 'governing board of a state institution of higher education,'" Parsons said in an e-mail message to the Collegian. "So the Board of Governor meetings are required to be public … but other meetings for the SFRB or other boards on campus are not …"
But Chris Beall, a Denver-based lawyer with a firm that represents Colorado media organizations including the Collegian, said the language in the rule clearly classifies the SFRB as a state public body.
The Student Fee Review Board barred the public from its last two meetings by going into what is called "executive session" to discuss student government's budget for next year, which two Colorado attorneys say is a violation of state Sunshine rules, which dictate that public board meetings have to be open.
The SFRB, which is mostly made up of students, said they did so after receiving confirmation from CSU legal counsel that the action was legal.
Amy Parsons, the university's head legal adviser, said last week that the board was within its statutory rights to close the meetings because it doesn't qualify as a state public body, which, she said, exempts it from the Colorado Open Meetings Law.
Parsons said the only CSU board that is subject to the law is the university System Board of Governors.
The law states that "any board, committee, commission, or other advisory, policy-making, rule-making, decision-making, or formally constituted body of any state agency, state authority, governing board of a state institution of higher education ... and any public or private entity to which the state, or an official thereof, has delegated a governmental decision-making function but does not include persons on the administrative staff of the state public body."
The SFRB moves to approve fee packages before sending its decisions to the BOG.
"As it would apply to the CSU System, that definition only includes the 'governing board of a state institution of higher education,'" Parsons said in an e-mail message to the Collegian. "So the Board of Governor meetings are required to be public … but other meetings for the SFRB or other boards on campus are not …"
But Chris Beall, a Denver-based lawyer with a firm that represents Colorado media organizations including the Collegian, said the language in the rule clearly classifies the SFRB as a state public body.
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MIKE WILLIAMS
posted 4/27/09 @ 4:42 AM MST
PARSONS, GET RID OF HER ASS, SHE IS A PENLEY-ITE AND WILL CONTINUE THE SAME ABUSE OF POWER AS PENLEY.
MIKE WILLIAMS
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