CO Dems need to slow down so ordinary Coloradans like you and I can exercise our right to speak up. The CO Supreme Court gets it (mostly) right.

Colorado Assembly Democrats need to slow down and let Coloradans have their right to speak up.

Unfortunately, with the current way that Democrat leadership is running things, this cannot happen.  I urge you to speak up on the issue, whether we agree politically or no.  If you're not caring for your rights, those running the state won't do so on your behalf.

Below is an open email (part of a multi-pronged effort I've undertaken), I sent recently to the Assembly Leadership, Gov Polis, and the Republican Assembly leadership.

Email follows.




An open email to Democrat Assembly Leadership, Governor Jared Polis, and Republican Assembly Leadership regarding the ability of the general public to participate in the Assembly.  


Hello to all,

My name is Cory Gaines.  I am a lifelong Colorado resident and currently live in Logan County CO.  

This open email is one of a few public efforts (see, for example, my op ed below) I am making to try and inform my fellow Coloradans of how they are being effectively shut out of their rights to participate in the legislative process.  While this email is public, the thing that distinguishes it from my other efforts is that this email is meant to go directly to those responsible for the calendar and operation of our legislature.  Ms. McCluskie, you run the State House.  Mr. Fenberg, you run the State Senate.  

And Governor Polis, while you like to respond to questions about your leadership with an avuncular chuckle and hand waving, let's stop for a second here and open the door so reality can step in. We all know you are intimately involved in the policy and operations of the Colorado General Assembly.   

My guess is that gamesmanship has been going on with the legislative calendar here in Colorado since there was a legislative calendar.  In that sense, there is not much new in bill timing.

In another, and more important sense, however, the calendar since the end of the 2022/2023 Assembly session has been effectively squeezing out everyday Coloradans' right to participate in the legislative process and have their comments added to the legislative record.  I lay blame for this strictly in the hands of the Democrat leadership of this state since you have controlled all three levers of power in this state since 2019.  

Despite that fact, I hope this letter is not shrugged off as another example of partisan bickering.  This should not at all be a partisan issue.  I don't care so much about the content of another Coloradan's comment as I do about opportunities for those outside the professional political class to participate.  With the schedules you have set, especially of late, this has become an effective impossibility.    

With schedules like you ran for what eventually became Prop HH, do you honestly expect that working, everyday Coloradans will have time to read, understand, prepare comment on, and then sign up to speak?

With schedules like you ran during the recent special session, do you expect any of the above?  

I like to stay fairly politically engaged, and make a point of taking time out of my busy schedule (full time job with a family) to offer my thoughts, but even I couldn't manage to catch any of the bills I wanted to speak about before they were whisked out of committee during the special session.  Imagine how much more unlikely it is if someone had a busier schedule or wasn't already fairly well schooled in the process of signing up.

This needs to change.  I want to assert my right to have my thoughts entered into the legislative record and I want everyone else to have the same chance.  

What is the hurry here?  With your emphasis on speed and quantity of legislation passed (as opposed to quality of legislation passed), ordinary Coloradans find the door closed in their face.

I urge my fellow Coloradans, of every party and ideology, to speak up and demand that we get our place at the table.  

Cory

https://pagetwo.completecolorado.com/2023/11/20/gaines-regular-coloradans-getting-shut-out-of-legislative-process/

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A surprisingly correct ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court.

With as much criticism as I level at the Colorado Supreme Court, it's probably good for my soul to write about something that they did correctly.  This also gives me a chance to update an earlier post.

I'd written some time back about a court case that Boulder brought against an oil and gas operator to try and break their oil and gas lease.**

The gist of the case by Boulder was that the operator, who had to shut down for some maintenance, thereby stopped production and ended the lease.

The case made it all the way to the State Supreme Court and they recently ruled that the operator did not, in fact, meet the criteria for stopping production and thus got to keep their lease.  More in the link below.

One quick and important additional detail on the ruling.  The appellate court immediately below the Supreme Court had made more of a blanket statement of how to know when an operator was or was not in active production.  The State Supreme Court, while ruling in favor of the oil and gas company, did not uphold that hard-and-fast rule.

This may be, as was the ruling re. reverse keyword searches, more of a case-by-case thing and it probably will leave the door open to challenges by others in the future. 

Still, while I would have preferred more certainty (I think it's better for everyone, including business interests to know when they're on firm ground), I think the decision here is the right one.  

I think Boulder is trying their hardest to get any and all oil and gas out of their area, and, in so doing, could have ended up with some legal precedent that would have done no one in the state any good had they succeeded.

**Ah, good old Boulder.  Wants the oil (one of the largest per-capital consumers of fossil fuels), doesn't want the oil exploration.  Wants the renewable electric power too, but I'll be damned if I see any large-scale turbine or solar farms up there.  No giant transmission lines marching across their land and blocking their views either.

https://www.coloradopolitics.com/courts/boulder-county-oil-gas-leases-not-terminated-after-maintenance-pause-supreme-court-says/article_0a958644-87e6-11ee-b4ec-b79aad353f22.html#google_vignette