Attorneys for Gov. Bill Ritter said Wednesday that they will seek dismissal of a lawsuit filed by The Denver Post that requests 19 months' worth of cellphone records that Ritter has declined to give the newspaper.

Denver District Judge Morris Hoffman gave First Assistant Attorney General Maurice Knaizer — who is representing Ritter — until Sept. 5 to file the motion. Hoffman gave The Post two weeks after that, until Sept. 19, to respond to the motion to dismiss.

Knaizer and Ritter contend the records, which they say were made on the governor's personal cellphone, are not a matter of public record.

The governor's office has provided The Post with the cellphone records for the governor's state-paid cellphone.

The Post, however, contends that Ritter only occasionally used his state-issued cellphone and conducted state business on his second, or personal, phone.

The records for Ritter's state-paid cellphone showed the governor used the phone for less than three minutes on state calls in some months, typically to access voice mail.

In his busiest month, the governor used his state-issued phone for 1,555 minutes, but none of the calls are itemized on the bill provided to the paper, so there is no way to know whether the calls were personal or on state business, the paper says.

Knaizer told Hoffman that under a 2003 Colorado Supreme Court decision, before Hoffman holds a hearing to determine whether the newspaper is entitled to the records, he must make a finding whether the open-records act applies to Ritter's cellular phone records.