Some folks might be tempted to think the biggest problem with the Ouray Police Department has been solved, because the city fired the chief. They think the trash has been taken out, so to speak.

But something still stinks. The department’s struggles run deeper than the influence of its former leader.

A lack of accountability and transparency is at the root of this agency’s problems, and those issues have come from both within its walls and higher up in city administration.

For example, it took more than four months for us to obtain intelligible public records in a use-of-force complaint involving a teenager, which was filed in February.

You might remember the front page we published on June 6 – the one with a bunch of blacked-out documents. The redactions were so numerous, the document was impossible to decipher.

We spent the past few months going back and forth with the city, continuing to push for transparency and less-redacted documents. Our attorney, Steve Zansberg, was able to obtain them last week, months after he told the city’s attorney we would agree to not pursue legal action if the city would supply those documents, as they should have in the first place.

We took the unusual step of printing the documents, side by side, in this newspaper for you to read for yourself. You’ll find them on pages 16-20. As you’ll see, the city liberally blacked out portions of this complaint, to the point where they made no sense. In some cases, it appears to be an attempt to protect the department. In other instances, the censorship seems completely random.

These redactions were excessive. They were unnecessary. They weren’t meant to protect the integrity of an investigation or the juvenile’s privacy.

So what was going on here? It’s pretty clear the city attempted to use a law designed to protect juveniles’ privacy to protect adults who were accused of wrongdoing, and a department that was accused in a use of force complaint. Some of those adults still work at the police department.

On top of that, we also believe Carol Viner, the city’s contract attorney, has acted as a buffer to keep public records out of the hands of the public.

We still don’t know exactly what happened. But it doesn’t add up.

Our open records request for the investigation report stemming from the complaint filed by the police department’s former evidence technician came up empty. We filed it May 31, almost two months after she lodged the complaint, and City Administrator Silas Clarke quickly replied he was closing out the request because he didn’t have it.

The city released the report we requested at the same time it released the audit report on the department – July 9, 39 days after our request. The date on the investigation report? May 30, the day before we filed our open records request.

We asked consultant Paul Schultz when he finished the report, but he dodged our questions by saying he was at Best Buy and then out of state, referring questions to Viner.

Viner didn’t return our calls. Clarke, who submitted his resignation the week the city released the audit report, initially said he had been busy dealing with a personnel issue – the firing of the chief. Then he said the city didn’t have the report when we asked for it.

He also told us Viner received the report, then he discussed it with her and used it in considering the personnel issue.

When we pushed back and said Viner, acting on behalf of the city, should have been subject to our open records requests, he claimed they had attorney-client privilege and her emails are not subject to open records laws since they’re not on the city’s email system.

“You can argue that all day long, I don’t care,” Clarke said. “That’s attorney conversation, not me.”

Clarke maintains he and the city didn’t hire Schultz. “The city nor I hired Paul for that investigation. Carol hired Paul for that investigation,” he said.

That’s a problem, because the city’s money – taxpayer money – was used to hire Schultz.

The courts have ruled a public entity with a contractual right to access documents from a third party must disclose those records in response to a request if they are used for a public purpose. So said the state Court of Appeals in 2022. In this case, Schultz was hired with taxpayer funds, and the courts have ruled that public entities cannot use third parties to limit access to public records. In other words, the city can’t use Viner as a buffer to play keep away with documents financed by taxpayers.

Seems like we’re dealing with a shady game of hot potato.

Clarke’s speedy reply, combined with the lack of response from Viner and Schultz’s refusal to answer a simple question, looks suspicious.

All this comes after Clarke also asked us not to report on the police department’s case involving the former Ouray School janitor – once in October and again in April – claiming our reporting would somehow jeopardize the case. Instead, the police department’s poor investigation protocols seem to have done just that.

The motivation for this lack of transparency seems to be self-preservation. It’s a lot easier to control the message if you can keep information under wraps.

We’re not here to assign blame. But we are here to point the finger of responsibility and hold our public officials accountable.

Ouray is faced with a dysfunctional police department, one that won’t be fixed with renovations to the station or more square footage per officer, which the audit report leaned heavily upon.

This isn’t an episode of “Fixer Upper.” Building an interview room and putting up bullet proof glass at the police department entrance isn’t going to fix the root problems with this agency, which lie in professionalism, training, accountability and transparency.

As Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said more than a century ago, “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” We encourage city leaders to consider how they can prioritize the public’s right to know, and we hope the city council focuses on transparency in their search for a new city administrator and police chief.

The citizens of Ouray deserve accountability, not more circling of wagons and shenanigans.

Erin McIntyre is the co-publisher of the Ouray County Plaindealer. Email her at erin@ouraynews.com.