DORA’s Barbara Kelley

You know what sucks? Hitting “reply” instead of “forward” when you’re talking game plans about the adversary who sent you the original email.  That seems to be what happened when The Colorado Observer sent a Colorado Open Records Act Request to the Department of Regulatory Agencies’ Barbara Kelley, according to a recent article.

Ooops. 

The Observer requested additional details on the panel that allegedly cleared liberal U.S. Senator Mark Udall from any wrongdoing after emails revealed his staff tried to pressure the DOI into reducing the number of healthcare insurance cancellations resulting from Obamacare.  Here is what Kelley emailed the news outlet, and we can’t help but think this was a big fat mistake:

“We expected this, so let’s get with [Deputy DORA Director] Michelle [Pedersen] and we will touch base with the [Attorney General] to put together our response.”

So, can we surmise that the Hickenlooper administration will not be cooperating with The Colorado Observer‘s CORA request?  According to an email shared with the Peak, the request seemed pretty straightforward.  Here’s what they were looking for:

• The names and job titles of the people empaneled to investigate the accusations against Senator Udall’s staff;
• Public notices issued by the Department related to scheduled meetings of those investigating the accusations against Senator Udall’s staff;
• Copies of meeting agendas, meeting minutes and contemporaneous notes related to the meetings of the investigative panel;
• A list of people interviewed by the investigative panel, including names and job titles;
• Transcripts or electronic recordings of interviews done by the investigative panel or other people asked to interview or investigate;
• A copy of the order made by you to impanel the people picked to investigate the Sen. Udall incident, including who appointed the investigators
• and the identified individual expertise of those picked that was relied upon as the reason for their selection.

We would think that the DORA would be happy to furnish such information in order to be transparent.  It’s not like this whole “clearing of Udall” process was a sham, right?  RIGHT?