Claims of a lack of transparency in Basalt town government has led to a surge of requests for public documents.
Town Clerk Pam Schilling has about a dozen requests by citizens and journalists for information filed under the Colorado Open Records Act. By law, she has three days to provide those public documents.
But because she is inundated with so many requests at once, she informed some individuals earlier this week that it’s going to take longer to assemble the public documents.
That’s the case for Basalt resident Ted Guy who last week asked for all writings between the mayor, a council member and the former town manager since July, as well as text messages by the mayor since August, public notices for specific government meetings and audio recordings of executive sessions.
That takes a lot of time.
“It does affect everyone who has to pull their emails, the planning department, finance so a good number of staff is affected by these requests,” Schilling said
She says providing public documents under CORA oftentimes involves hundreds of pieces of paper and countless hours of work. That’s why the town of Basalt, like many other municipalities, charges 25 cents a page and $30 an hour for staff time. The first hour is free.
The town clerk says the sudden uptick in requests started around the April election, when a criminal investigation was opened over a citizen’s request for the mayor’s text messages.