A CHILL FROM THE NORTH  print   email
By JOSHUA ZAFFOS   
Wednesday, 08 August 2007
Earlier this summer, Lucius O’Dell, the executive director of the Republican Study Committee of Colorado during the 2007 legislative session, sent a cold front across the Gunnison County Attorney’s office that left the staff toiling during late nights and weekends without any overtime pay. Deputy Attorney Thomas A. Dill and others spent after-hours shifts sorting through and copying thousands of emails of the three Gunnison County commissioners, all Democrats, to fulfill a massive records request from the Berthoud-based Republican Party operative.

Under the conditions of the Colorado Open Records Act, O’Dell asked for three-plus years’ worth of emails from commissioners Jim Starr, Paula Swenson and Howard “Hap” Channell. He has also asked for similar records on Democrat Trési Houpt, a Garfield County Commissioner, and Art Goodtimes, a San Miguel County Commissioner and Green Party member.

 “It’s really offensive,” says Gunnison County Attorney David Baumgarten, of the massive requests targeting Western Slope Democrats. “The Open Records Act exists for a reason, but this — I don’t know if you could call it abuse, but it was interesting.”

The common denominator among the targeted five officials is their support of restrictions on oil and gas operations, now Colorado’s largest industry, representing six percent of the economy.

Democrats and Republicans from the State Capitol to town halls have split sharply over rules to moderate industry impacts from more than 32,000 active well pads drilled across the state. Many citizens have raised concerns over the negative effects on environmental and public health, and communities’ livelihoods. Democrats, including Governor Bill Ritter, responded with a bill that changed the mission and makeup of the state’s regulatory Oil and Gas Commission to include public interest and conservation voices in addition to industry supporters. 

“That bill is going to depress the economy,” says Representative Kevin Lundberg, a Berthoud Republican. “What we’re seeing now is the industry standing there, shaking their heads, and they’re moving out of Colorado.”

Those complaints have Republicans tsk-tsk-ing the Democrats’ agenda for the state’s energy sector, and O’Dell rummaging for dark secrets of local government leaders who support the changes.

O’Dell, a former Colorado State University student, also worked this year as a legislative aide to Lundberg and Senator Scott Renfroe of Greeley, both members of the Republican Study Committee of Colorado, a far-right-wing caucus of state lawmakers. Republicans launched the caucus in 2005 and registered the organization with the Secretary of State as a “Support Group for Legislators dealing with issues of social welfare.” Their principles mirror those of a national Congressional group dedicated to limited government and “traditional family values,” including opposition to abortion, same-sex partnerships and embryonic stem-cell research.

Lundberg and other members claim no knowledge of O’Dell’s requests.

“This is the first I’m hearing about it,” says Lundberg, who serves as the caucus’ vice chairman. “That has nothing to do with the Republican Study Committee. [O’Dell] is doing other things for other people.”

“I learned about it when I saw it in the Grand Junction Sentinel on Sunday a few weeks ago,” says State Senator Josh Penry of Fruita.

Penry says he knew O’Dell was working for the RSCC but that the executive director title is “news to me.” (O’Dell’s name no longer appears on the committee’s website.)

State Senator Dave Schultheis of Colorado Springs says the caucus paid O’Dell as an independent contractor, with funds from the Claremont Institute, a California-based think tank.

O’Dell did not return several calls from the Chronicle. But even if he is working as a dirt-digging maverick, his motives align with the gripes of state Republican leaders over regulatory checks on the oil and gas industry.

The Gunnison County Attorney’s Office spent eighty hours fulfilling O’Dell’s request — at no charge, because the county lacked a policy for mega-requests, Baumgarten says. But Garfield and San Miguel counties have informed O’Dell that he needs to pay thousands of dollars for copies and labor to receive his documents. Both have refused his pleas to waive the fees, and San Miguel County has even questioned whether the query falls under the purview of the Colorado Open Records Act, because it does not appear to fulfill a public purpose.

“It’s just unfortunate that if there’s not a legitimate public purpose here, public resources are being tied up in a witch hunt,” says Chantell Taylor, director of Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government. “When you’re using the Open Records Act as a vehicle to dig up dirt, that is an abuse.”

Republicans have taken aim at two other Western Slope Democratic county commissioners for recall votes. State Democrats and government watchdogs are wondering whether, despite their claims of ignorance, Republicans will exploit any findings that come out of O’Dell’s search.

“It smacks of dirty campaign tactics and I’m sure they’re gearing up for the next election,” Taylor says. “Of course, they are distancing themselves, but the real question is: Will they use the information?”

 
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