This is one in a series of Sunshine Week columns for the SPJ Colorado Pro Chapter.

By Beecher Threatt

Small towns, small issues? Not necessarily.

Small town newspapers have a unique obstacle: “We’re just a small town. We don’t have to comply with open meetings requirements because everyone knows everyone.”

Our response is, “So our citizens are not entitled to the same protections as citizens in more populous areas?”

Of course they are.

We discovered that a local school board was not designating a posting place for open meetings notices annually, as the law requires. Meetings were posted on bulletin boards around town, but the board was not designating an official location.

“Everyone knows where meetings are posted,” was the answer, with rolled eyes, when we pointed this out.

But the board now designates a posting place in its first meeting of the year.

Sometimes the issues are small, too. An open records request may not lead to a story or to any great revelation, but small issues are consequential nonetheless.

Our city council was considering saying the Pledge of Allegiance before meetings. One councilor expressed her opposition. At the next meeting, someone mentioned council members were receiving threatening emails from the public. It sounded ominous.

An open records request for all council emails regarding the pledge revealed there was one threat to that one councilor, and the citizen said only that he would no longer support her nor do business with her.

The request didn’t lead to a story.

We found out, however, that councilors were carrying on conversations by email. The conversations technically complied with the law, because the mayor would send out a question and each councilor would reply back just to the mayor. Then she would send out another email and the same process ensued.

While the original issue turned out to be minor, we found out we should be watching the council’s email accounts more closely.

We again thought it would lead to a big story when we asked the city for citizen comments regarding the city administrator’s performance evaluation. The council had solicited anonymous written comments on a city-drafted form and promised commenters they would remain secret.

They couldn’t keep that promise. After first denying our request, the city had to relent.

Again, the revelations were minor. Administrator good, administrator bad. No story here.

The story turned out to be the uproar over council promising confidentiality and then having to disclose the comments. Councilors also learned anonymous comments are essentially worthless.

Small town newspapers must take their watchdog role seriously, in issues big and small. Open records and open meetings laws are advantages we should be using more often, even when it seems inconsequential.

Let readers know you are keeping an eye on their representatives.

They designate a posting place, they follow the law. The important thing is the record shows it was done.

Beecher Threatt is co-publisher of the Ouray County Plaindealer.