The sound scientific management of Colorado’s renewable wildlife resources won a big victory on Nov. 5, when voters rejected Proposition 127, a proposal that would have banned hunting and trapping mountain lions, bobcats and lynx in the state. The issue is far from completely closed, however. Two lawsuits have been filed against Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) Commissioners and the commission itself for violations of the state’s 50-year-old Open Meetings Law.
The Sunshine Act of 1972, approved by voters that year, codified Colorado’s Open Meetings Law, which declares “…that the formation of public policy is public business and may not be conducted in secret.” To that end, all meetings between two or more public officials where public business is discussed must be open to the public after notice of such a meeting is provided.
The lawsuit, filed in Denver County District Court, cites the appearance of an Op-Ed written by CPW commissioners Jack Murphy and Jessica Beaulieu—joined by former commissioner James Pribyl—in the Durango Herald on Oct. 12. By that date, the plaintiff’s claim, commissioners had before them proposed changes in lion management plan on the state’s Eastern Slope (unanimously approved only last month). Discussions relating to mountain lion hunting and management were therefore official business before the CPW Commission, requiring an open meeting under the law.
The lawsuit alleges, “Rather than following the law, CPW Commissioners Beaulieu and Murphy published an opinion piece in support of their personal ideologies. The CPW Commissioners’ breach of their obligations [put] false information into the public discourse. This false information could have been corrected and this harm could have been avoided if CPW Commissioners Beaulieu and Murphy had met their obligations to involve the public in matters of public business.”
Contents of the Op-Ed were also of concern. It claimed hunters are “often aided by drones,” when the commission’s own regulations prohibit the practice. It also incorrectly asserted mountain lion hunts “[guarantee] success at 100 percent,” when the real number is closer to 20 percent. Perhaps the most absurd was a claim that “wild cats” are not involved in any human conflict, despite the fact CPW’s own website has dozens of press releases to the contrary, including an incident from 2023, when a mountain lion was euthanized after it swatted a girl and left a puncture wound on her face.
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