by Alana Rosen

As we quickly approach the New Year and the 2023 legislative session, the Colorado Capitol will soon be filled with legislators, partisan legislative staff, nonpartisan legislative staff, executive agency officials, lobbyists, and the public. With so many individuals in the building, you may be asking yourself, “What is the difference between partisan and nonpartisan legislative staff if they all serve the Colorado General Assembly?”

Partisan legislative staff work for or strongly support one side, party, or legislator. In Colorado, the House of Representatives and the Senate each have a Democratic and Republican caucus staff made up of partisan legislative aides, interns, and staff. Partisan staff work to advance the policy agenda of a legislator or that person’s caucus, as well as assist with requests from constituents. Partisan staff are more likely to discuss political and personal beliefs in the workplace.

Nonpartisan legislative staff, on the other hand, aim to serve all legislators impartially— regardless of party—ensuring their work is objective, balanced, and accessible. To fulfill this function properly, nonpartisan staff must provide the highest level of service to all members, under all circumstances, so the General Assembly feels confident in their impartiality. When nonpartisan staff participate in partisan political activities, public confidence in the legislative process can be undermined by creating a perception that nonpartisan staff may not provide the unbiased support necessary to enable the General Assembly to make informed decisions that best serve the public interest.

Nonpartisan legislative staff have a compelling interest to protect both the actual and perceived integrity of the legislative process by placing narrowly tailored restrictions on employees’ political activities. For this reason, nonpartisan staff are prohibited from fundraising for a partisan candidate, making political contributions, actively participating in the campaign of a partisan candidate, actively participating in a political party or organization, or running for political office. Additionally, nonpartisan staff do not discuss politics or personal beliefs with legislators, partisan legislative staff, executive agency officials, lobbyists, or the public.

During the interview process, prospective staff are often asked extensive questions regarding their ability to be nonpartisan and whether they have any reservations about being nonpartisan. It is a code of conduct that nonpartisan staff adopt in order to serve the legislature fairly and impartially.

You may now be wondering, “Who are the nonpartisan staff so I can avoid engaging them in political discussions?” In addition to your nonpartisan Senate Services staff and staff of the House of Representative, there are four nonpartisan legislative agencies created in state law that serve the Colorado General Assembly with oversight from a legislative committee : the Office of Legislative Legal Services (OLLS), Legislative Council Staff (LCS), Joint Budget Committee Staff (JBC), and the Office of the State Auditor (OSA).[1]

The OLLS is the nonpartisan in-house counsel for the General Assembly. Among its many tasks, the OLLS writes laws, produces statutes, reviews administrative rules, comments on initiated measures, and serves as a resource of legislative information for the public.

The LCS is the permanent research staff of the General Assembly, providing public policy research at the request of the members. The LCS provides support to legislative committees, responds to requests for research and constituent services, prepares fiscal notes, provides economic and revenue forecasts, and performs other centralized legislative support services.

The JBC is the General Assembly’s permanent fiscal and budget review agency. The JBC writes the annual appropriations bill, also known as the Long Bill, for the operations of state government. The JBC is charged with analyzing the management, operations, programs, and fiscal needs of the departments of state government and makes recommendations to the members of the General Assembly as they build the state’s budget.

The OSA seeks to hold state government agencies accountable through performance, financial, and information technology audits of all state departments, colleges, and universities. Audits provide solution-based recommendations that focus on reducing costs, increasing efficiency, promoting the achievement of legislative intent, improving effectiveness of programs and the quality of services, ensuring transparency in government, and ensuring the accuracy and integrity of financial information to hold government agencies accountable for the use of public resources.

With so many new members in the General Assembly this year, a clearer understanding of the differences between the roles of partisan and nonpartisan legislative staff is helpful as we enter the 2023 legislative session. If you’re a new legislator and have questions, please feel free to contact the OLLS at 303-866-2045 or olls.ga@coleg.gov.

[1] See article 3 of title 2, Colorado Revised Statutes.

by Ben FitzSimons and Michael Pearsall

In 2019, the Colorado General Assembly voted to create an office to provide human resources services within the Capitol. (§ 2-3-511, C.R.S.) This office was designed to serve anyone working, volunteering, testifying, or visiting the Capitol complex. This includes, but is not limited to, state legislators, legislative aides and interns, legislative branch staff (both partisan and nonpartisan), Capitol building staff, and some third parties including lobbyists, members of the media, and individuals testifying before legislative committees.

The mission of the Office of Legislative Workplace Relations (OLWR) is to provide neutral, nonpartisan, and confidential support in conflict and complaint resolution within the work environment. The OLWR was developed after considerable research and feedback from experts, consultants, and an interim legislative committee.

Located in Room 026, in the northwest quadrant of the Capitol basement, the OLWR is currently led by the office director, Ben FitzSimons, with the assistance of legislative support specialist, Michael Pearsall. Both Ben and Michael are committed to the office’s mission of providing professional conflict resolution and support in a neutral, nonpartisan, and confidential manner.

The OLWR provides a number of specialized services within the Colorado General Assembly. These include:

• Confidential consultation, facilitation, and resolution planning for workplace issues and concerns. This includes working with legislators and supervisors to help resolve concerns or issues with their staff members and working with staff members (including aides, interns, partisan and nonpartisan staff, and volunteers) to help resolve questions or concerns about the work environment or their supervisors.
• Confidential consultation regarding corrective/disciplinary action and planning. In addition, the OLWR can review or draft documents related to performance management and resolution of personnel issues.
• Harassment complaint intake, investigation, and resolution. Any person who is covered by the Colorado General Assembly’s Workplace Harassment or Workplace Expectations policies may speak confidentially with the OLWR regarding questions or concerns about behaviors that may fall under the policy. The OLWR will help to assess concerns to determine which policy they may fall under, discuss what options may be available for resolving the concerns, talk through what the various options may look like, and manage or coordinate any resolution processes pursuant to the policies under which the concerns fall.
• Workplace training, including:
  • Annual workplace harassment and expectations training for all legislators, staff, and third parties;
  • Manager/Supervisor training – this includes topics like coaching, providing effective feedback, and effective meeting management; and
  • Other professional development training – this includes topics like effective training skills, introduction to project management, leadership, and workplace ethics.
• Other employee relations services, including:
  • Employee engagement – working with management to brainstorm and implement programs and practices designed to ensure that staff feel connected and committed to their roles and agencies;
  • Succession planning – working with management to brainstorm and implement plans for providing their staff with the necessary skills, knowledge, and experience to fill high-level internal positions as the individuals in those roles retire or move on;
  • Personnel policy reviews and recommendations – this includes reviewing for best practices, legal compliance, and consistency; and
  • Exit interviews for departing staff – this includes collecting feedback confidentially and reporting data back to agencies without providing the individual identities of those interviewed.
• Organizational development services, including:
  • Provision or coordination of organizational development services to teams or agencies;
  • Team or individual coaching;
  • Customized team-building programs or exercises; and
  • Team-based leadership development training and projects.
• General Assembly Coordinator for Americans with Disabilities Act accommodation. The OLWR:
  • Serves as the initial point of contact for members of the public seeking accommodation in order to participate in or observe the legislative process; and
  • Oversees the formal and informal processes for grievances filed under the policy.

Please feel welcome to contact the OLWR with any questions or concerns regarding any of the processes listed above. Both Ben and Michael would be more than happy to assist in any way possible.

You may contact the OLWR by email at olwr.ga@coleg.gov or call (303) 866-3393. You may also visit the office in person in Room 026 of the basement level of the Capitol building.

by Darren Thornberry

The Colorado General Assembly is back in session and with it comes the opening of the dazzling new Legislative Council Resource Center. The remodeled space in the basement of the Capitol building consists of the Legislative Council Staff (LCS) front reception, the legislative library, and offices for up to four staff members.

Yes, the legislative library is still here! LCS staff maintain library services, including access to statutes, session laws, journals, and recordings of legislative hearings, and the office is open to all legislative staff and the public for legislative research.

The renovation of the space that was formerly the legislative library had two purposes: First, renovating the library space allowed LCS to consolidate two front-facing offices–the Joint Legislative Library and the LCS front office—to serve both purposes in one space. Now there is a streamlined entrance to LCS staff offices, and a single place for legislators and the public to access legislative resources and LCS staff. The second purpose was to renovate existing LCS office space to house the Office of Legislative Workplace Relations, which is now located in Room 026 in the north end of the Capitol basement.

A key renovation goal was to restore the space to the Capitol’s “Period of Significance,” which was established as 1904, when the Dome was first gilded with gold. A unique find during construction was a gallery/hallway similar to the open gallery that is on the 1st Floor directly above the renovated space.

The new Legislative Information Resource Center, located at the foot of the Capitol’s Grand Staircase in the basement, is a comfortable resource area for members of the legislature, legislative staff, and the public to easily access legislative resources and LCS staff.

L-R: Legislative Council’s Elizabeth Haskell, Elizabeth Burger, and Juanita Hill

Presently, because of the pandemic, members of the public are asked to call 303.866.3521 to make an appointment to use the library resources.

by Sharon Eubanks

Although the 2021 legislative session is just now under way again, legislators have already been interacting with the staff of the Office of Legislative Legal Services for their bill and amendment requests, although on a more remote basis. While the pandemic is impacting the manner in which we interact with legislators for the time being, it does not impact what we can do for legislators. The Legislative Legal Services staff, comprised of attorneys and other professional staff, provides a variety of written materials and services to legislators in addition to their bill and amendment drafting needs.  We encourage legislators to learn more about and make full use of the products and services we can provide.  Please visit our web page.

Legislative Legal Services is the General Assembly’s nonpartisan legal staff agency. Nonpartisanship provides the foundation for how we serve the General Assembly through our interactions with legislators, partisan staff, agency officials, lobbyists, and the public. Legislative Legal Services aims to serve all legislators fairly and impartially, regardless of party or rank, and to ensure our work is objective, balanced, and accessible.

As legislative lawyers, we maintain an attorney-client relationship with the General Assembly, as an institution, and not with each legislator. Therefore, we are obligated to serve the best interests of the institutional client, the General Assembly, as distinguished from the individual interests of any legislator. However, when working individually with legislators, we are statutorily bound to maintain the confidentiality of all bill and amendment requests before introduction, and we are ethically bound to maintain the confidentiality of the communications we have with each legislator, as a constituent of the institution.

In addition to our primary function of drafting bills, resolutions, and amendments, the Legislative Legal Services staff, upon request, can provide legislators with written materials to help them understand Colorado law and what other states are doing to address various issues and to help them explain their bills. Due to time constraints created by bill and amendment drafting demands, which are our first priority during the legislative session, our staff may not always be able to respond immediately to every legislator’s request. But we do our best to provide the requested materials as soon as practicable, time permitting, and on a first-come, first-served basis. Examples of ancillary materials available upon request include:

• More-detailed, written explanations of bills;
• Summaries of changes made to a bill in committee, in the first house, or in the second house;
• Tables comparing bill provisions;
• Explanations of state or federal statutes;
• Summaries of case law relevant to a bill;
• Summaries of case law interpreting a particular statute or issue;
• Legislative histories of issues or bills;
• Legislative histories of constitutional or statutory provisions;
• Comparisons of Colorado law with the law of other states on particular issues; and
• Lists of all Colorado statutes addressing an issue.

Our office also provides written legal opinions, including written legal opinions on issues relating to pending legislation. We hold legal opinion requests in strictest confidence. We will not release a written memorandum to other persons without the permission of the legislator who requested it. But we will give the same answer if another legislator asks us the same question, which will result in identical legal opinions for different legislators.

There are some limitations on the materials and services we can provide to legislators due to our role as nonpartisan legislative staff. Examples of the documents and tasks that Legislative Legal Services staff cannot provide include:

• Voting records on an issue or bill;
• Talking points advocating for or opposing a policy position;
• Conveying messages that encourage a legislator to vote for a bill or discourage a legislator from voting for a bill;
• Soliciting legislators as joint prime sponsors, cosponsors, or second house sponsors;
• Violating confidentiality, e.g., telling a legislator about amendments prepared for other legislators to his or her bill, telling a legislator what another legislator said or told others about the legislator’s bill, or telling a legislator what legal advice our office gave another legislator;
• Assisting a legislator in counting votes; and
• Advocating for passage or defeat of legislation on policy or any other grounds.

These lists illustrate the materials or services we can and cannot provide, but they are not exhaustive. If a legislator has a request for materials or assistance, please ask us. If it’s something we can provide, we will do so.

The Legislative Legal Services staff is ready to provide the services and support necessary to help the members of the Seventy-third General Assembly have a productive and successful legislative session in 2021. Whether by phone, video meeting, or an in-person visit to our main office in Room 091 on the ground floor of the Capitol, we encourage legislators to utilize the Legislative Legal Services staff for all their legislative needs, not just for bill and amendment drafting.

Also, for your convenience, you can access the schedule of all of the deadlines established by the Executive Committee for the 2021 legislative session at https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/2021_session_jr_44_executive_committee_full_deadlines_schedule.pdf. Since Rule 44 of the Joint Rules of the Senate and House of Representatives was amended at the beginning of the 2021 session, legislative days are now counted consecutively unless the General Assembly temporarily adjourns again for more than three days. The 120th legislative day is currently anticipated to be June 12, 2021, which is the deadline for the General Assembly to adjourn sine die.

by Ashley Athey

Members of the General Assembly, as elected officials representing their respective districts, often receive a number of phone calls, emails, and, at least pre-COVID, in-person requests, questions, comments, and more from their constituents. While office staff help field the initial calls and emails, sometimes constituent requests and questions require a little more research.

That’s where the Constituent Services Unit of the Legislative Council comes in. They assist members of the General Assembly by providing information to respond to constituent requests. The Constituent Services staff strive to provide quick responses that are short, accurate, objective, and understandable to the constituent. Either a member or the member’s legislative aide, intern, or volunteer may submit a request. Responses may come from the Legislative Council Staff or from an appropriate person in federal, state, or local government.

Constituent Services staff help with almost any type of constituent request, including requests related to:

• Current state law or legislation pending before the General Assembly;
• Operations and services of state government;
• Federal and local government activity/federal law;
• State issues, e.g., water, environment, tourism, the economy; and
• Legislative Council “products” — fiscal notes, economic forecasts, issue briefs.

The manner in which Constituent Services staff responds varies. They may:

• Navigate the constituent to the right person in a state agency who can address the constituent’s concern;
• Connect the constituent with the proper level of government to address the constituent’s concern;
• Provide information about current law, pending legislation, or state policies;
• Help someone better understand the law;
• Directly help resolve the problem (e.g., getting a tax refund or getting a driver’s license ); or
• Simply listen and acknowledge the concern.

There are, however, some requests that Constituent Services staff cannot assist with, such as requests for:

• Voting, attendance, and financial records;
• Partisan research;
• Press releases;
• Legal opinions;
• Opinion/position papers; or
• District surveys.

Only members of the General Assembly or a member’s legislative staff may submit a constituent request to Constituent Services.  A request may be initiated by telephone, fax, email, in writing, or in person.

Elizabeth Haskell is the Manager of Constituent Services and can be reached at 303-866-6264 or by email. Requests may be submitted to the constituent services staff through email, by phone call, or in person at the Resource Center located at the foot of the main stairs on the ground floor of the State Capitol.

By Ben FitzSimons

The Office of Legislative Workplace Relations (OLWR) was created in 2019 (§ 2-3-511, C.R.S.) to help fulfill the Colorado General Assembly’s human resources needs and to provide a neutral, professional entity to support conflict and complaint resolution in the work environment. The OLWR, in its current state, was developed after considerable research and feedback from experts, consultants, and an interim legislative committee.

The OLWR is located in Room 026 in the northwest quadrant of the Capitol basement and provides a number of specialized services for the Colorado General Assembly. Ben FitzSimons serves as the Director of the OLWR, which serves all legislators; all staff in all legislative agencies, the House of Representatives, and the Senate (both partisan and nonpartisan); and some third parties (e.g. lobbyists, members of the media, and individuals testifying before legislative committees).

The OLWR provides employee relations, training, and organizational development services, including:

• Confidential consultation, facilitation, and resolution planning for workplace issues and concerns. This includes working with legislators and supervisors to help resolve concerns or issues with their staff members and working with staff members (including aides, interns, partisan staff, nonpartisan staff, and volunteers) to help resolve questions or concerns about the work environment or their supervisors.
• Confidential consultation regarding corrective/disciplinary action and planning. In addition, the OLWR can review or draft documents related to performance management and resolution of personnel issues.
• Harassment complaint intake, investigation, and resolution. Any person who is covered by the Colorado General Assembly’s Workplace Harassment or Workplace Expectations policies may speak confidentially with the OLWR regarding questions or concerns about behaviors that may fall under the policy. The OLWR will help to assess concerns to determine which policy they may fall under, will discuss what options may be available for resolving the concerns, will talk through what the various options may look like, and will manage or coordinate any resolution processes pursuant to the policies under which the concerns fall.
• Workplace training, including:
• • Annual workplace harassment and expectations training – for all legislators, staff, and third parties.
  • Manager/Supervisor training – this includes topics like coaching, providing effective feedback, and effective meeting management.
  • Other professional development training – this includes topics like effective training skills, intro to project management, leadership, and workplace ethics.
• Other Employee Relations services, including:
  • Employee engagement – working with management to brainstorm and implement programs and practices designed to ensure that staff feel connected and committed to their roles and agencies.
  • Succession planning – working with management to brainstorm and implement plans for providing their staff with the necessary skills, knowledge, and experience to fill high-level internal positions as the individuals in those roles retire or move on.
  • Personnel policy reviews and recommendations – this includes reviewing for best practices, legal compliance, and consistency.
  • Exit interviews for departing staff – this includes collecting feedback confidentially and reporting data back to agencies without providing the individual identities of those interviewed.
• Organizational development services, including:
  • Provision or coordination of organizational development services to teams or agencies.
  • Team or individual coaching.
  • Customized team-building programs or exercises.
  • Team-based leadership development training and projects.

In addition, the OLWR serves as the ADA Coordinator under the Colorado Legislative Branch Policy on Services for Persons with Disabilities, Including Grievance Resolution Procedures. In this role, the OLWR serves as the initial point of contact for members of the public seeking accommodation in order to participate in or observe the legislative process and oversees the formal and informal processes for grievances filed under the policy.

You may contact the OLWR by email at OLWR.ga@coleg.gov or call 303-866-3393.