Request for report regarding Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold headed back to court

Three months after a Denver District Court judge ordered Secretary of State Jena Griswold's Office to ask a consulting agency if it has a missing $25,000 report, the consultant has released a set of demands.

Susan Heinzeroth with SageRiver Consulting wants, among other things, protection from "disparagement." Former employees of Griswold told CBS Colorado that the report is highly critical of Griswold, and it appears Heinzeroth is worried about retaliation.

"I think they don't want to produce it. Nobody wants to produce it. It's just become this shell game of where is this report," says Suzanne Taheri.

Eight months ago, she filed an open records request on behalf of the Public Trust Institute - a conservative non-profit focused on government accountability. 

Taheri says she saw a $25,000 invoice on the state's transparency portal for "leadership development" at the Secretary of State's office, and she wanted to see what the public got for its money.

A purchase order shows the state hired Heinzeroth at SageRiver to do the training and make "findings, conclusions, and recommendations". Taheri asked to see Heinzeroth's report, which some of Griswold's former staffers say included an employee survey.

Taheri says Griswold's office initially said there was no report, then it said there was a report, but they didn't receive it and refused to ask Heinzeroth for it. A judge ordered the office to check with SageRiver, which had suddenly closed temporarily.

An attorney for Heinzeroth said she'd retired and "shredded all hard copy documents and attempted to delete and erase all electronic files."

She said Heinzeroth would search her electronic archive for two hours at a cost of $1,600.

Taheri agreed, "Then last week, we get this ridiculous, just absolutely ridiculous, group of demands."  

Heinzeroth wanted the Secretary of State's Office and Public Trust Institute to agree not to contact her ever again, or subpoena her, or hold her liable or disparage her. If they did, they'd have to pay her $25,000.

"We are doing you a favor," Heinzeroth's attorney said. "We are not legally required" to do the search. SageRiver, she said, "is not the official custodian of the report."

"Of course they were the official custodian. They created it," said Taheri. "If you are a third party that took public money, that's a public document, and you have to produce it."

If not, she says, any government entity could avoid open records requests by simply outsourcing their work.

Taheri says she's filed hundreds of requests for records but none like this: "This one has been, by far, the most obstructionist case under CORA (Colorado Open Records Act) I've ever done. I get it, you don't want to be in the middle of it. But you got paid $25,000 to write a report. That just comes with the territory when you work for the government; you have some accountability to the people. For them to just act like we're asking for the sun and the moon and the stars is just ridiculous. All we're asking is them to go search the electronic archive. We're willing to pay for that."

Taheri says that's all the Open Records Act requires her to do. 

Heinzeroth's attorney insists she gave the report and survey results to the Secretary of State's Office.

Taheri says the state's retention policy requires the office to hold onto the documents for ten years, but there have been no repercussions. She says Griswold, who is now running for Attorney General, should explain why she didn't hold onto the report and survey results.

If she becomes AG, Taheri notes, there are serious consequences for not maintaining documents, including those damaging to your case.

Taheri has filed another motion with the judge asking him to once again order Griswold's office or SageRiver to turn over the report and survey results. 

CBS Colorado reached out to Heinzeroth's attorney and has not heard back yet.