Aurora officials heavily redacted public documents related to the eviction of 300 people at the Aspen Grove apartment complex last month, claiming the emails — to and from the city and the landlord’s lawyer — represented “attorney work product.”
Under the Colorado Open Records Act or CORA, government agencies can assert certain privileges to withhold information. Examples include proprietary information, personnel issues, for a law enforcement investigation, or "work product," such as drafts.
Will Trachman, general counsel for Mountain States Legal Foundation, doesn’t see how Aurora can claim a “work product” exemption on behalf of the landlord’s attorney.
“I think this is troubling,” Trachman said.
For an email to be “work product,” Trachman said, it would have to contain an attorney’s drafts or theories or impressions shared internally. Or, said another way, the CORA exemption is designed to protect the thought process of the government entity’s attorney.
“I don’t think this is attorney work product,” said Trachman, who reviewed the redactions. “I don’t think this holds up.”
Headquartered in Colorado, Mountain States Legal Foundation is a nonprofit law firm dedicated to defending and expanding constitutional rights since 1977. The coalition promotes the freedom of the press and open access to government.
Having previously served in the U.S. Department of Education as deputy assistant secretary in the Office for Civil Rights and as general counsel for the Douglas County School District, Trachman has been on both sides of CORA — as a requester and as a custodian of records.
In the wake of Aurora officials boarding up the Aspen Grove apartment complex last month — they cited health and safety issues as the reason — The Denver Gazette submitted several public requests for communications between the city and the landowner.
Through a Florida PR firm, the company blamed the deteriorating conditions at Aspen Grove on gang activity — an allegation that city officials initially denied and then later walked back.
As early as June, an attorney representing the landlords sent a flurry of letters, obtained and authenticated by The Denver Gazette, to police, state and local officials seeking help with the Venezuelan gang, which the lawyer said had “forcibly taken control” of the property.
The landlord also sought to hire off-duty police officers to provide security for the properties, a request that the Aurora Police Department declined.
The Denver Gazette's records request netted 38 emails. In all, Aurora officials redacted all but the salutations in 35 emails between Peter Schulte, Aurora’s assistant city attorney, and the lawyer who represents CBZ Management.
“As indicated in the redaction and the redaction log, all redactions were made based on attorney work product,” Aurora’s CORA officer said in the city’s online portal. “The email chains are a back-and-forth negotiation between attorneys, one of which, Pete Schulte, is an attorney for the City.”
Aurora officials ultimately agreed to drop all charges against the owner of the Aspen Grove apartment complex in exchange for selling the property, leasing it — or a "similar disposition" — and assuming the cost to board up and secure the building.
In exchange, the property owner agreed to waive his right to a speedy trial and Nome Partners LLC agreed to sell or lease the property, and, among other things, pay up to $60,000 of the costs to clean up and secure the complex. Notably, the agreement said that the apartment's owners may "re-tenant" the building, provided the building complies with the city code.
The agreement was signed on Aug. 12, a day before the city evicted about 300 residents and boarded up the property.
Based in Brooklyn, CBZ Management operates rental apartments in New York and Colorado, with 11 properties in Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs, and Pueblo.
Three complexes owned by CBZ Management in Aurora affected by gangs — based on reports — include Whispering Pines, the Edge at Lowry, and Aspen Grove.
Although The Denver Gazette requested emails from Aurora’s Code Enforcement to CBZ Management dating back to Jan. 1, all the redacted exchanges were between Aug. 5 and Aug. 10.
Aurora officials charged The Denver Gazette $66 to review and redact 38 emails and a crime report. The three-hour estimate means it took officials roughly five minutes to review and redact each document.
Under CORA, government agencies can charge up to $41.37 an hour — the first hour is free — and the law doesn’t require those entities to outline the expenditures.
And Aurora officials didn’t.
An earlier records request netted more than 2,100 emails that likely included duplicates. Aurora officials said they would charge $1,419 for the request at $33 an hour. The Denver Gazette submitted a new CORA to narrow down the documents to bring down the cost.
“It’s what makes it so expensive,” said Jeff Roberts, executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, of Colorado’s public information law.
Oftentimes, the retrieval fees under CORA — Roberts, and Trachman said — act as a deterrent to obtaining public information and holding the government accountable.
“It decreases public transparency to have a statute that allows an agency to say, 'We’re happy to give you the transparency, but you have to pay for it,'” Trachman said.
“It effectively chills the public’s right to know.”
Local News
