CAA: GA News, "Colorado official won't release diary alleging misconduct by former airport manager"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Friday, August 16, 2002

Hunt won't release diary alleging misconduct by former airport manager
By Greg Johnson
The Montrose (CO) Daily Press


MONTROSE -- Montrose County Manager Dennis Hunt is refusing to turn over
portions of a diary he keeps which detail events that led up to the May
3 firing of former Montrose Regional Airport manager Dave Miller.

Hunt's diary was used during a Monday grievance hearing filed by Miller
about his firing. A Montrose Daily Press request under Colorado Open
Records Law to view the pages of Hunt's diary referenced in Monday's
hearing was delivered Thursday to Montrose County Attorney James Fritze.
Fritze said he will review the request but had no immediate comment.

Hunt said he does not intend to comply because the diary is a personal
document, not public, and contains sensitive information about other
county employees and operations. The only way anyone will see his diary
is if a judge orders it, Hunt said. At Monday's hearing the county
manager said his wife, Cheryl, edited excerpts from the diary to place
in Miller's personnel file.

When asked if he would release the portion of the diary used in Monday's
public hearing, Hunt declined, saying the parts about Miller are
"intertwined" with information about other county employees and cannot
be lifted. Hunt said he also does not intend to release any portion of
his diary to county commissioners, adding his attorney, Paul C.
Sunderland of Grand Junction, supports his position the diary is not a
public record. 

Sunderland did not return telephone calls before press time.

Because Hunt keeps a diary in his capacity as Montrose County manager
and the document includes information about county employees and
operations, the diary is public information, said Tom Kelley, an
attorney with the Colorado Press Association.

Because the diary information was disseminated by Hunt during a public
meeting, the documentation supporting his allegations about Miller
should also be public, Kelley said.

The Daily Press has requested copies of pages from Hunt's diary, as well
as all e-mail correspondence between Hunt and Montrose County
Commissioners Leo Large, Dave Ubell and Betsey Hale between Dec. 1,
2001, and Aug. 14, 2002.

Notes compiled from Hunt's diary outline specific dates and incidents
alleging misconduct and disobedience by Miller while he was the airport
manager. 

Making an open records request is not an allegation of misconduct on the
part of Hunt or the county, Daily Press Publisher Stephen Woody said.
Because the diary was a key component used in a public meeting to
support Hunt's firing of Miller, it is important, responsible and in the
public interest to see if the edited portions presented at Monday's
meeting are an accurate reflection of Hunt's diary, Woody said.

Michael Reagor, an attorney representing Miller, agrees with Kelley and
Woody, adding his requests for Hunt's diary have been declined by
Fritze.

Without that comparison, nobody knows whether the information presented
at Miller's hearing accurately reflects Hunt's diary, Reagor said. He
also wonders why Hunt keeps notes on personnel problems in a separate
log and not in employees' personnel files.

"You don't know," he said. "It ought to be pretty scary to the people of
Montrose County that the typical employment relationship isn't occurring
between the county manager and the employee. If you have a problem with
an employee, put it in the (employment) record. (Instead, Hunt's)
keeping his own private notes on it."

Reagor also questions the diary items about Miller as documentation that
accurately reflects Hunt's relationship with the former airport manager.

The diary "didn't exist in May when Mr. Miller was terminated, but (it)
exists today," he said, adding it is important the diary is released
before it can be destroyed. "We want to make sure it continues to
exist."


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