Judge: Estes fire district violated open-meetings law

ESTES PARK — The Estes Valley Fire Protection District violated Colorado’s open-meetings law when it hired a new chief during an October executive session, a Larimer County judge has ruled.

According to the Estes Valley Voice, which had sued to challenge EVFPD’s process for hiring Paul Capo as its new day-to-day leader, Larimer District Judge Juan Villaseñor wrote in Monday’s ruling that, “while they avoided taking a formal vote or ranking all the candidates, it’s clear that after discussing each of the candidates and weighing their strengths and weaknesses, the board members agreed that the Fire District should offer the fire chief position to Mr. Capo” during executive session. That violated Colorado’s Sunshine Law, Villaseñor wrote, “because it adopted a position or took formal action during that executive session.”

Villaseñor rejected EVFPD arguments that no decision was actually made during executive session, pointing to public statements by the board president and a visitor to the meeting.

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