City of Colorado Springs v. David White November 1998

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967 P.2d 1042, City of Colorado Springs v. White, (Colo. 1998) Page 1 *1042 967 P.2d 1042 410k216 Communications to or Information Acquired by Public Officers 98 CJ C.A.R. 5838 410k216(1) In General; Official or Governmental Privilege. Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc. CITY OF COLORADO SPRINGS and Carla L. Hartsell, Petitioners, V. David WHITE, Respondent. No. 97SC685. Nov. 23, 1998. Petitioner brought request under Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) for inspection of report prepared by outside consultant to city. The District Court, El Paso County, Thomas K. Kane, J., denied request, and petitioner appealed. The Court of Appeals, 950 P.2d 637, reversed and remanded. The Supreme Court, Martinez, J., granted certiorari and held that: (1) governmental deliberative process privilege is part of common law of state; (2) CORA exempts material that comes within scope of privilege from public inspection; and (3) consultant's report was exempt from disclosure. Decision of the Court of Appeals reversed. West Headnotes [1] Witnesses 0216(1) 410 - - -- 410II Competency 410II(D) Confidential Relations and Privileged Communications 410k216 Communications to or Information Acquired by Public Officers 410k216(1) In General; Official or Governmental Privilege. The "deliberative process privilege" is a widely recognized confidentiality privilege asserted by government officials, which rests on the ground that public disclosure of certain communications would deter the open exchange of opinions and recommendations between government officials, and which is intended to protect the government's decision - making process, its consultative functions, and the quality of its decisions. [2] Witnesses <�:;-216(1) 410 - - -- 410II Competency 410II(D) Confidential Relations and Privileged Communications State of Colorado recognizes common -law governmental deliberative process privilege, also known as "official information privilege," "governmental privilege," and "executive privilege," which sanctions nondisclosure by governmental agencies or instrumentalities of information, files, reports, or memoranda maintained by those agencies or instrumentalities, when disclosure would be harmful to the public interest. [3] Witnesses «216(1) 410 - - -- 410I1 Competency 410II(D) Confidential Relations and Privileged Communications 410k216 Communications to or Information Acquired by Public Officers 410k216(1) In General; Official or Governmental Privilege. The governmental deliberative process privilege is a qualified privilege, the primary purpose of which is to protect the frank exchange of ideas and opinions critical to the government's decisionmaking process where disclosure would discourage such discussion in the future. [4] Witnesses X216(1) 410 - - -- 410II Competency 410II(D) Confidential Relations and Privileged Communications 410k216 Communications to or Information Acquired by Public Officers 410k216(1) In General; Official or Governmental Privilege. The governmental deliberative process privilege protects only material that is both predecisional and deliberative. [5] Witnesses X216(1) 410 - - -- 410II Competency 410I1(D) Confidential Relations and Privileged Communications 410k216 Communications to or Information Acquired by Public Officers 410k216(1) In General; Official or Governmental Privilege. Postdecisional documents, which are communications made after a particular decision has Copyright (c) West Group 2001 No claim to original U.S. Govt. works