Governor Hickenlooper has filed an amicus brief in support of Treasurer Walker Stapleton’s lawsuit seeking access to personal information on the top 20% of PERA retirees – read more here. In 2012 the Denver District Court ruled against the Treasurer and this past August the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld that ruling stating the Treasurer does not have “unfettered access” to PERA member information.
Our coalition has always opposed Treasurer Stapleton’s request. We believe the information he requested could lead to an invasion of private personal information and because he only requested it for the top 20% of retirees we also suspect he has nefarious plans for this data. The appellate court stated that Stapleton “bears the burden of establishing that his request is consistent with a fiduciary purpose…” We agree with the Courts that Stapleton has not adequately expressed what he would do with this personal information that would help him know more about the PERA system. Aggregated data that doesn’t violate privacy has been provided to the public via the CAFR and also in a summary version.
Many of you have called me about this story asking if it is true – it is! Then you have proceeded to call the Governor’s office and let them know you do not support his decision to support Treasurer Stapleton’s lawsuit. I think it would be great if more of you called him.
Call Governor Hickenlooper at 303-866-2471 and ask him to stop supporting the Treasurer’s lawsuit against PERA and violating your privacy.