Durango City Council voted to block Councilor Olivier Bosmans from attending an executive session on Tuesday about an open records lawsuit that resident John Simpson filed against the city.

City Council blocked Bosmans on the basis of protecting attorney-client privilege.

In the home stretch of the nearly four-hour special meeting, where councilors had already attended several previous executive sessions about quarterly reviews of the city attorney and city manager, City Council entered an executive session to receive legal advice about the Simpson lawsuit.

Councilors remained there for about 20 minutes before returning to the council chambers in Durango City Hall. Councilor Jessika Buell moved to exclude Bosmans from the executive session on the basis of attorney-client privilege.

Councilors voted in favor of the motion, with Bosmans the only one voting “no.” The council then resumed the executive session.

Specifically, City Council held the executive session to ask questions and receive legal advice about Colorado Revised Statutes 24-6-402(4)(B), a section of Colorado Sunshine Law about open government meetings.

In addition to City Council, City Manager José Madrigal, City Attorney Mark Morgan and Nicholas Poppe, Denver lawyer and special counsel, attended the executive session.

The council’s action to block Bosmans from the closed-door meeting occurred after a records request filed by The Durango Herald returned numerous emails between Bosmans and Simpson, a government official on the Durango Infrastructure Advisory Board.

In the emails, they share internal discussions they’d had with city staff members and other councilors about how to address council opposition to certain subjects.

Bosmans said the first 20 minutes of the executive session for legal advice consisted of attacks against him from other councilors.

“I can guarantee there is no violations and there is no (confidential) emails that were communicated ever,” he said.

Bosmans said three emails that blind carbon copied Simpson and several other residents revealed in the records request were “informational only,” sent over the course of two years and are not grounds to exclude him from an executive session.

He said he’s curious to see where council’s decision to push him out of the executive session “would lead legally.”

“You have made an accusation, you have prosecuted me,” he said. “You have a prosecutor and a judgment and there is no trial, no due process, and this is not the way a proper democratic structure should function. It’s very unfortunate to see that take place in a place like Durango.”

He said the city is continuing a smear campaign against him.

Buell said she can’t trust Bosmans when it comes to the lawsuit filed by Simpson.

“There is a quote that says, ‘Trust is earned when actions meet words.’ And I think that speaks volumes right now,” she said. “ … Actions and CORA requests and records that have been shown and are in the public now show us that in this specific case … trust was broken through numerous actions by you.”

Buell said City Council wants to foster trust and strive for transparency, but Bosmans broke that trust and it will take time to rebuild it.

In an interview with the Herald last week about the emails between him and Simpson, Bosmans denied any wrongdoing.

cburney@durangoherald.com