Judge orders Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold to turn over public records

A Denver District Court judge has given Secretary of State Jena Griswold until Thursday to comply with an open records request, or she could be held in contempt.

The records involve consulting work, paid for with public funds. Griswold's office says it doesn't have the documents and it refuses to ask the consultant for them, claiming that would impose an undue "burden." Instead, the Secretary of State's office sent four employees and the Attorney General's Office sent three attorneys to court.

The consultant was brought in two years after Griswold became Secretary of State. The office had become a revolving door. Griswold was on her second deputy secretary, third chief legal counsel and fourth chief of staff. An invoice in the court record shows the state paid Sage River Consulting nearly $25,000 to conduct "leadership development" and make "findings, conclusions, and recommendations."

Attorney Suzanne Taheri, who was deputy secretary under Republican Wayne Williams, saw the invoice in the state's transparency portal and asked the office for the consultant's report.

"We felt like that report is important for the public to know about and certainly they paid for it, quite a bit of money, and they deserve to see it," Taheri said.

Taheri says the office told her it didn't have anything to show for the money.

"No recommendations, no conclusions, no nothing. Not a single document," Taheri said.

She didn't buy it, pointing to another invoice that showed the office paid Sage River the same amount of money for strategic planning and the consultant produced a 700-page report.

"This is the same company. There should be documents out there," she said.

Former Secretary of State's Office employees tell CBS Colorado there are documents, but they say Griswold refused to take custody of them because they're highly critical of her and she didn't want the information subject to open records requests.

Taheri says she asked the office to call the consultant for the documents, and it refused to do so.

"Our position is that if you pay for it, even if you store it at the vendor and you don't get it back, it's still in your control. And that's what the case law says in Colorado," Taheri said.

She sued. In response, Griswold's attorneys said the office "did not deny the right to inspect a record" and is not required "to ask third parties to voluntarily disclose documents." They say requiring the office to call the consultant would "materially increase the burden."

Taheri says it's better than going to court.

"I thought it was unusual because their whole argument is that this would be really difficult to have to go call the vendor. But I arrive in court and they have four representatives from the Secretary of State's Office there. They had three attorneys from the Attorney General's Office there. So they have this whole army of people on state time just to not make a phone call."

Former employees say Sage River also surveyed everyone in the office. Taheri asked for the results of that too but came up empty.

The office questions whether any documents even exist but the judge called that "implausible." He says not only are records likely, Griswold's office should have them. Since it claims not to, he ordered it to ask Sage River Consulting for records, which he says should have been maintained.

He may also order the office to pay Taheri's attorney fees and costs.

The Secretary of State's Office declined to comment to CBS Colorado's Shaun Boyd on the case. Boyd also attempted to contact the founder of Sage River but didn't receive a response.     

Jena Griswold is term-limited as secretary of state and won the Democratic nomination for state attorney general in Colorado's primary election in June. She faces Republican Michael Allen in November's general election.