Ecosystem advocate, Josh Schlossberg, filed a civil complaint in District Court in Jefferson County, Colorado last week alleging that Jefferson County Commissioner Lesley Dahlkemper deleted and/or withheld emails requested in a Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) filing.

On September 15, 2022, plaintiff Josh Schlossberg (formerly a Jefferson County resident, now living in Boulder County) sent an email to Commissioner Dahlkemper asking if she was receiving emails from a Change.org petition opposing logging in Jefferson County Open Space addressed to her and other Commissioners. On September 19, Dahlkemper replied that she had.

As logging ramped up across Jefferson County despite public protest, and a local reporter informed Schlossberg that Dahlkemper was making provably false statements to media about him, Schlossberg went on to file a Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) request for relevant emails using a variety of key words. Yet nowhere in the several hundred pages Schlossberg received from the County—nor in specific follow up CORA filings with the exact wording of the petition—were the emails (nor the emails of Dahlkemper allegedly defaming Schlossberg to media).

The lawsuit alleges that Commissioner Dahlkemper is either withholding or deleting emails in violation of Colorado state law. The crux of Schlossberg’s case is that if Dahlkemper is refusing to hand over non-controversial petition emails she’s already admitted to receiving, it’s almost certain the elected official has done the same with those of greater importance.

In his request for relief, Schlossberg asks the court to require that Commissioner Dahlkemper retrieve not just the petition emails but all emails related to the requested search terms. If these emails aren’t provided, Dahlkemper could be held in contempt of court and charged with a Class 2 misdemeanor under an “abuse of records” statute, an offense which applies if an official knowingly falsifies, destroys, or conceals a public record without authority.

“Colorado’s state legislature enacted the Colorado Open Records Act so citizens can ensure transparency and accountability in our local government,” Schlossberg says. “If elected officials are free to delete or withhold any information from these requests that may reflect poorly upon them or our government, there is little value to CORA. Therefore, it remains up to the court to hold elected officials accountable for thumbing their nose at the law and democracy, otherwise we will have neither.”