A complaint delivered to the Colorado Springs Utilities Board — which also serves as Colorado Springs City Council — alleges that senior leaders at Colorado Springs Utilities withheld text messages that should have been disclosed in response to a Colorado Open Records Act request made in August.
The complaint, sent to board members on August 30, claimed there were more than 300 text messages that would "damage Colorado Springs Utilities reputation if made public," and that the texts included discussions of electric capacity for Project Taurus, the proposed data center near Garden of the Gods Road.
Integrity Matters, a local advocacy group that is also an appellant of Project Taurus, had made the CORA request to which the texts would be responsive. According to the complaint, text messages from a Springs Utilities employee discussed connecting Raeden, the company behind Project Taurus, with other Utilities employees to "indoctrinate them," and detailed plans for outings where drinking was the focus, including luxury meals.
The complaint stated that its author was "not alleging a disputable interpretation of CORA," but rather alleging "that the records were correctly identified as discloseable and that they were withheld anyway, deliberately, by people who knew better." "The records are responsive," the complaint said in bold, adding there was no "good-faith basis to call all of them non-responsive."
The complaint requested a formal investigation into the actions of several named Colorado Springs Utilities executives and also identified 13 high-level employees with knowledge of the situation. The requested investigation was asked to cover all communications relating to the CORA response among named individuals, any legal advice or determinations regarding disclosure, instructions given to employees processing the request, and all 300-plus text messages reviewed for CORA responsiveness.
Colorado Springs Utilities, when contacted about the complaint, said it was aware of it and stated that "to our knowledge we have released all responsive records to all closed CORA requests."
Integrity Matters told News5 it received two text messages in response to a CORA request and has since filed a supplemental to its appeal application.
Whether Colorado Springs City Council will open a formal investigation into the alleged withholding of records remains unresolved and is expected to be a focal point for Integrity Matters' ongoing appeal of Project Taurus.