The dispute over a $25,000 report commissioned by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office now centers on whether the document can be located and who was responsible for keeping it. Eight months after a Denver nonprofit requested the report on staff turnover, the office has not produced it, and the consultant who prepared the work has demanded legal immunity before discussing what happened to it.
Suzanne Taheri, an attorney with the conservative government-accountability nonprofit Public Trust Institute, filed an open records request in February, according to CBS News Colorado. Taheri said she noticed a $25,000 invoice for leadership development work on the state’s transparency portal; Griswold’s office initially told her there were no records documenting the expenditure. Colorado hired Susan Heinzeroth of SageRiver Consulting to conduct training and produce findings, conclusions and recommendations for the Secretary of State’s Office, the station reported.
Taheri told the station that the office’s explanation changed: it first said no report existed, then said a report existed but had never been received, and ultimately declined to ask Heinzeroth for it directly. Former Griswold staffers told the station Heinzeroth’s work included an employee survey. Other former employees separately told the station the report was highly critical of Griswold and alleged that the secretary refused to take custody of it because of that criticism.
The Dispute Over Custody and Access
A Denver District Court judge ordered the Secretary of State’s Office to ask SageRiver Consulting whether it still had the report, according to CBS Colorado. SageRiver has since posted a notice that it is temporarily closed. After the order, the company conveyed conditions for further engagement through Heinzeroth’s attorney, the station reported…