Durango City Attorney Mark Morgan said he is drafting a censure of one city councilor at the request of another councilor after a meeting on Tuesday devolved into insinuations of open meeting violations and accusations of dishonesty.
Councilor Olivier Bosmans was reprimanded over “unbecoming behavior” in January 2024. That was a warning, Morgan said. If City Council votes to censure Bosmans at its next regular meeting in February, his eligibility to serve as mayor or mayor pro tem, to sit on any commission or to sit in any representative position other than councilor would be revoked.
“The first time someone screws up and the council calls you out, they do it with the intent of correcting the behavior. Second time it happens after that, they’re doing it to punish you,” he said.
Durango city officials dogpiled on Bosmans after his comments calling into doubt the procedures of an executive session held during the regular City Council meeting to discuss legal advice related to two lawsuits filed against La Plata County Sheriff Sean Smith and the Board of County Commissioners.
Bosmans voted with his colleagues to dismiss two lawsuits filed against the sheriff and county commissioners, respectively. He said the city should never have pursued the litigation in the first place.
The lawsuits were a waste of money and caused pointless friction with the county, he said. He then said the executive session was not recorded and insinuated something was discussed that should not have been, a possible violation of Colorado open meetings law.
“This meeting was not recorded. And I think a lot of things – there was a lot more spoken than should have been spoken that should have been recorded,” he said.
He said a recording of the executive session was stopped for legal advice and strategizing at Morgan’s recommendation, but City Manager José Madrigal, Assistant City Manager Bob Brammer and Police Chief Brice Current did “a large part of the speaking.”
Bosmans said in the executive session he questioned the legality of allowing statements from Madrigal, Brammer and Current, but the city attorney explained his recommendation and the majority of council voted in favor of allowing them to speak.
“I don’t have a problem with that,” Bosmans said. “But I do think that was a very interesting aspect for stopping the recording.”
According to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, municipalities are required to hold electronic records of executive sessions for at least 90 days after an executive session.
When legally challenged, judges are permitted to privately review executive sessions in question to determine whether discussion went off topic or unpermitted formal actions were taken. Such review does not, however, make recordings subject to public review or discovery in judicial proceedings, according to DOLA.
Colorado law makes an exception for electronic records in cases of attorney-client privilege and does not require parts or full discussions within the scope of attorney-client privilege to be recorded.
Other councilors and city employees pushed back against Bosmans, in particular Mayor Jessika Buell, who said Bosmans is the source of friction on the council.
She said Bosmans is a “constant naysayer” who “twists truths” to misrepresent city business, and he does so to bolster his image in the eyes of residents.
“Anyone listening can ask anyone on the dais or that was in that executive session how long those men spoke for. You are a liar, Councilor Bosmans,” Buell said.
Madrigal said he, Brammer and Current are city employees with employees’ rights that protect them from character defamation and insinuations they behaved unethically or illegally.
“It’s disgusting that it has gotten to this level and I apologize, Chief Current and Assistant City Manager Bob Brammer,” he said.
Morgan said Bosmans’ statements were the most egregious case of “Monday morning quarterbacking for political gain before an election” he’s ever seen.
In an interview, Bosmans told The Durango Herald that he did not lie about anything, but Buell did. He said Buell ranted at him and misquoted him.
The mayor and Bosmans argued about how long certain individuals spoke during the executive session, with Bosmans saying city employees did “a large part of the speaking,” and the mayor accusing him of making it seem as if Madrigal, Brammer and Current did a “majority” of the speaking.
Brammer said on Thursday he made one statement near the end of the executive session, which lasted between 45 minutes and an hour, at the request of the city attorney. Brammer was asked to provide context to validate actions the city had taken in order to provide an update to City Council. His statement lasted “maybe two minutes,” he said.
Typically, city employees attend executive sessions strictly to serve advisory roles. They do not otherwise converse with councilors or provide information outside of requests, he said.
Bosmans’ representation of his and other employees’ participation in the meeting was not true, said Brammer, the city’s former police chief.
“In regards to Councilor Bosmans’ statement, it was a complete, fabricated, straight up lie,” he said.
Current said Brammer provided less than three minutes of clarifying legal input and Current said one sentence clarifying a legal detail. Morgan ran the rest of the meeting, and Bosmans sat silently and never objected to any discussion.
“While Councilor Bosman’s first statement was more of a reactive reimagining of an event, his second statement was a lie,” Current said. “... Sadly, to me, it looks like a calculated political setup. And for what purpose, I don’t know.”
cburney@durangoherald.com
