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Boulder County ACLU Chapter advocates for fair open meeting policy at Longmont Public Library

From the Longmont Daily Times-Call:

Publish Date: 3/1/2007

ACLU to investigate Longmont library’s open-meeting policy

By Ben Ready
The Daily Times-Call

LONGMONT — The American Civil Liberties Union will investigate whether the Longmont Public Library can allow groups to hold private meetings there.

Directors of the Boulder County chapter of the ACLU voted unanimously Tuesday to investigate after hearing a presentation from Stan Weekes, one of three county residents who was denied access to a group’s meeting at the library in February.

Boulder ACLU vice chairman Dave Sonnabend said an ACLU board member and lawyer will call Longmont city attorneys to find out what library regulations and city ordinances govern open-meeting policies at the library.

“If they may not allow their facility to be used other than what is stated in some policy, we want to see the policy. If there is an ordinance involved here, we want to see that,” Sonnabend said.

On Feb. 13, the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition — a group of 80 organizations — held a meeting at the library hosted by El Comité of Longmont. CIRC leaders opened the meeting to the public but asked that non-members R.S.V.P. because the library room CIRC reserved was limited to 56 people.

Weekes is the director of the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform, a group with opposing goals to CIRC’s. Weekes had not reserved a seat, but library staff told CIRC’s organizers they would have to let him in if the room hadn’t filled to fire code capacity by the time the meeting started.

The meeting began 45 minutes behind schedule, shortly after the room had finally filled. Weekes, a Times-Call photographer and two others were never allowed in.

Library director Tony Brewer told the Times-Call a week later that library rooms are “free and open to the public” according to policy. But Brewer asked assistant city attorney Jeff Friedland to research whether state court cases point to legal precedents on whether “members-only” or “R.S.V.P.-only” gatherings should be allowed in public libraries. Another question is whether private meetings — if they’re allowed at all — must open doors to non-members if rooms don’t fill to capacity by starting time.

Brewer said only two groups hold regular meetings at the library that are not completely open to the public: Mothers Against Drunk Driving — which educates drunk-driving offenders — and city staff conducting neighborhood conflict-mediation meetings.

On Tuesday, Brewer sent an e-mail to hundreds of fellow library directors statewide asking their advice. Friedland said Tuesday he was still researching case law and did not have a timeline for getting back to Brewer.

The ACLU will likely follow up its investigation with a formal letter to the city but probably won’t seek a lawsuit through its state chapter, Sonnabend said.

The ACLU has no interest in anything related to immigration from that night, Sonnabend said. The group is considering library policies from a First Amendment and freedom of assembly standpoint only, he said.

“Perhaps our writing this letter will show our concern and bring these constitutional concerns to (the city’s) attention. That oftentimes is enough,” Sonnabend said. “Either the library obeyed their own policies or they didn’t, and we don’t know at this moment.”

City officials will wait to comment until they hear directly from the ACLU, city spokesman Rigo Leal said.

Ben Ready can be reached at 303-684-5326, or by e-mail at bready@times-call.com.