A Denver District Court judge has ordered Secretary of State Jena Griswold to produce public records by Thursday or risk being held in contempt.
The records involve consulting work paid for with public funds. Griswold’s office paid Sage River Consulting nearly $25,000 for “leadership development” and to make “findings, conclusions, and recommendations.” The office claims it has no documents from the work and refuses to ask the consultant for them, calling the request an undue burden.
Former deputy secretary Suzanne Taheri filed the open-records request after seeing the invoice. The office told her it had nothing, no recommendations, no conclusions, no documents. Taheri noted the same firm previously produced a 700-page report for a similar payment.
Former Secretary of State employees told CBS Colorado that documents do exist, are highly critical of Griswold, and that she refused to take custody of them so they would not be subject to open-records requests. The judge called the office’s claim that no records exist “implausible” and ordered it to request the materials from the consultant. He may also require the office to pay Taheri’s attorney fees.
