Ethics Watch calls on the Lake County Board of County Commissioners ("BOCC") to schedule a new hearing and conduct a new vote on the disaster emergency declaration made on February 13, 2008 regarding the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel ("LMDT").

After its review of documents obtained through Colorado Open Records Act requests and other publicly available documents, Ethics Watch concludes that the BOCC apparently violated the Open Meetings Law by making the decision to declare a disaster emergency before the February 13 public meeting. Ethics Watch recommends that the BOCC hold a new hearing to hear and consider all points of view before considering anew whether to declare a state of emergency regarding the LMDT.