The city of Durango and resident watchdog John Simpson are set to clash in court once again. This time, the city is bringing the legal heat to Simpson.
The latest legal action concerns an ethics complaint filed against Simpson in January by then-Mayor Melissa Youssef and emails between Simpson and Councilor Olivier Bosmans containing disclaimers that they are not subject to open records requests.
The lawsuit comes on the heels of the Durango Board of Ethics member Laurie Meininger’s resignation Aug. 28, the second resignation from the board in less than two weeks since it received member Robert Bates-roshchin’s resignation letter Aug. 16.
City Attorney Mark Morgan said in an email to The Durango Herald that the recent resignations are at least partially caused by Simpson.
“I very much feel that (Simpson) bullies and intimidates anybody who questions things that he does,” he said. “He’s done it to me. He’s done it to the attorney representing the board. He’s done it to board members. … His best defense is an aggressive, bullying offense against people who are trying to do their jobs.”
He said anybody who remains on the ethics board or who volunteers and is appointed to it should not have to worry about lawsuits from Simpson, which is another reason for the lawsuit filed in court this week.
Meininger told the Herald on Aug. 30 that Simpson has made multiple threats of lawsuits to the board and its members, and “everybody in the process is a little frustrated with how slow it’s been moving” in regard to the board’s review of the complaint against Simpson.
At its core, the city’s lawsuit seeks rulings that Simpson violated the Colorado Open Records Act by refusing to assist the city in providing emails between him and Bosmans that had been requested by The Durango Herald in November 2023 and by including disclaimers such as “This email is private and not subject to CORA request” in his emails to Bosmans.
Simpson withheld at least five emails from the city when responding to the CORA request on the grounds they were his personal emails, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also requests the court to find that 14 specific emails are public records and not exempt from CORA, that disclaimers used by Simpson have no legal weight and the Durango Board of Ethics may resume review of the complaint against Simpson.
Simpson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Simpson and the ethics board have been entwined for the better part of a year with the ethics complaint filed against him in January. Simpson has maintained the investigation into the complaint is one-sided against him and the ethics board is being used as a cudgel to enforce “administrative speech.”
“If you talk to one person, you’re going to get an ethics complaint. If you don’t talk to another person, you’re going to get an ethics complaint. That’s not what ethics is about,” he said in a public comment to the Board of Ethics at a meeting on Aug. 13.
He said the legality or appropriateness of CORA disclaimers is not an ethical matter nor one the ethics board has jurisdiction over, and rhetorically asked if a ruling against him would “leave you open to slander lawsuits?”
He insinuated several other times throughout the meeting he would take the matter to district court if a ruling was delivered against him.
In a motion for recusal that Simpson filed with the ethics board on Sept. 2, he said he filed an ethics complaint of his own against former mayor Youssef with the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission, which found his complaint was “non-frivolous.”
He asserted Youssef may have violated state law by voting to extend the terms of two board members, Meininger and Jay Eagan, who Meininger said had both agreed to remain on the ethics board past their terms to complete Simpson’s case under review.
He said Meininger and Eagan should recuse themselves from the ethics complaint review because they “may be required to participate in the (Independent Ethics Commission’s) investigation.”
Simpson also submitted three motions to dismiss Youssef’s case against him, arguing city code does not outright state the ethics board can function with fewer than five members. Simpson also argued Eagan is a county resident, not a city resident. Given Bates-roshchin’s and Meininger’s resignations, the board cannot currently conduct business because it lacks a quorum.
He also argued Youssef has a conflict of interest in being on City Council and having the ability to vote on ethics board appointments and extensions, and that the ethics board only has jurisdiction over matters concerning ethics, and something such as a CORA violation is not related to ethics.
Morgan dismissed Simpson’s arguments out of hand.
“He launders facts and law to suit himself. That's what he’s done here. His interpretation ... is completely inaccurate. The ethics board has to weigh in on that,” he said.
Simpson previously defeated the city of Durango in district court over a rejected open records request to the city in 2023. When the city appealed the verdict, he won again less than one week after the ethics board launched an investigation into the complaint against him earlier this year.
cburney@durangoherald.com
