Daily Camera Files Suit to Compel CU Boulder Board of Regents to Disclose Finalists in University Presidential Search

The Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) and Open Meetings Law (OML) require all public bodies in the state to announce the “finalists” when filling an “executive position.”  These laws typically apply to municipal governing bodies when hiring a city manager or town administrator.  A recent case arising out of the University of Colorado may affect how municipalities understand and apply these laws. 

Over one hundred applicants, twenty-eight search committee interviews, six Board of Regents interviews, but only one name—Mark Kennedy—released to the public: these are the numbers to which the Daily Camera points in filing its September 30 lawsuit to compel the University of Colorado to disclose names of five other finalists for the role of University President, in accordance with two CORA requests the Camera filed earlier this year. As reported by the Denver Post, the CU Board of Regents previously declined to release the names after receiving the Camera’s May and July CORA requests. The Post quoted a spokesperson for CU, who stated that naming a singular finalist has been the university’s “long-standing practice” and that the university’s position is that it has “long had the ability to name a sole finalist.”

As CORA and the OML are written, the list of finalists for a chief executive officer position of a state or local public body must be made public at least two weeks before an individual assumes the role. Additionally, if three or less candidates “possess the minimum qualifications for the position,” then those candidates will be considered “finalists” for purposes of records requests. While the CU Board of Regents interviewed six applicants in the final stages of the search process, it is their position that only one of these applicants is a “finalist” under the law, the last four CU Boulder presidents have been named in this way, and that CU has long believed it has the authority to name a sole finalist.

https://www.denverpost.com/2019/09/30/boulder-daily-camera-sues-cu-regents-mark-kennedy/