On June 17, the Herald published two pieces on the opinion page addressing the No Secret Police citizen initiative – the proposed anti-mask ordinance: a guest column by Joe Lewandowski titled “City Council silenced the voices of Durango residents,” and an editorial by this board titled “Our view: Let the people speak.” Both have been removed from our website and replaced with a correction that today’s editorial addresses. We owe our readers – and Durango City Attorney Mark Morgan, who brought these errors to our attention quickly and firmly, and members of City Council – a clear accounting of what went wrong.
We paired the column with our own editorial deliberately – and doubled the error. We agreed with the column’s factual premises without verifying them against our own reporting. Our editorial process failed.
The column contained several factual assertions that do not hold up to scrutiny. Most significantly, it stated that Morgan advised council to reject the initiative on the grounds that it was administrative rather than legislative – and thus ineligible for the ballot. He did not. Morgan advised council that the question was legally unsettled and recommended the city seek a declaratory judgment from the 6th Judicial District Court to determine whether the ordinance was legislative or administrative, a distinction that determines whether a citizen initiative is eligible for the ballot.
The column also stated that city leaders “denied citizens the right to vote” and “canceled a vote.” Neither is accurate. On April 21, City Council passed a resolution calling for the initiative to be placed on the ballot. On May 14, a district court judge – not the council – ruled the ordinance was administrative and therefore ineligible for the ballot. The election was canceled that same day by judicial order. The Holland & Hart memo, which the column characterized as undercutting Morgan’s position, in fact recommended the same course of action he had: seek a declaratory judgment. The Herald’s own April 27 reporting accurately described all of this at the time.
Opinion pieces are still journalism. Facts stated on the opinion page are held to the same standard of accuracy as any news story. This editorial board produces roughly 150 editorials per year, edits about 260 guest columns and last year published more than 700 letters to the editor – and we strive to meet that standard across all of it. We do not always succeed. Our corrections policy – which runs in every edition and applies to opinion as fully as to news articles – exists for this reason.
We stand behind our own editorial’s broader argument about the need for greater public participation in public policymaking. More than 1,700 Durango residents signed that petition. In 2022, Citizens Voice Durango and over 700 citizens used the same initiative process to challenge the Durango Fire Protection District’s plans to relocate to the old Durango High School building, helping to secure it as the city’s Civic Center. Both efforts reflected a shared belief: that citizens should have a meaningful role in decisions affecting their community.
Whatever the legal outcome, those 1,700 residents deserved a public forum where city officials could explain the legal complexity and hear from the community. That kind of dialogue has become harder to find. City Council reduced public comment at meetings from five minutes to three and requires topics not tied to an agenda item to wait until the meeting's end. It dissolved advisory boards in 2023, removing institutional memory and community networks no website can replicate. That concern stands. The factual errors in how we expressed it do not.
The Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics to which the Herald adheres – built on four principles: Seek Truth and Report It, Minimize Harm, Act Independently, Be Accountable and Transparent – was shaped in significant part by Denver journalist Fred Brown, who died this past April at 85 and whose name SPJ has since given to its annual national ethics award. That code calls on journalists to acknowledge mistakes, correct them promptly and prominently, and explain corrections clearly. We have done so before, including a mea culpa in October 2025, and we are doing so now. To Morgan and to City Council: We apologize for mischaracterizing your advice and your actions. That was neither fair, nor accurate. We remain committed to reporting the truth and correcting factual errors when they are brought to our attention. That’s our job.
