A special counsel has found that Councilmember Taishya Adams did not violate the City of Boulder’s code of conduct when she blocked several residents from her Instagram account and limited access to her book group.
The investigation, led by Fort Collins Deputy City Attorney Stefanie Boster, concluded that Adams did not break the rules because her social media activity and book group were not conducted in her official capacity as a city councilmember. Boster also said city policy allows councilmembers to engage in advocacy on a range of issues.
“The Code of Conduct allows a Councilmember to advocate, as a Councilmember, on any topic, including political candidates and ballot measures,” the report states.
Neither of Adams’ Instagram accounts — @adamsforboulder and @taishyasky — were official government accounts, meaning she was also free to restrict public access, Boster said. Similarly, because the book group was a private initiative, participation could be limited, she said.
The ruling follows a formal code of conduct complaint filed last month by three Jewish residents who alleged discrimination after Adams blocked one of them on Instagram and did not respond to their requests to join the book group. Generally, the First Amendment protects public access to official government communications.
The complaint comes amid ongoing tensions over the Israel-Hamas war, which have led to disruptions in Boulder City Council meetings and strained relationships among councilmembers over the past year. Pro-Palestinian protesters have been urging the council for more than a year to weigh in on the conflict.
Adams, who is a council liaison for the Boulder-Nablus Sister City Project, has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza. She has pushed for the city to revisit investment policies to restrict funds for weapons manufacturers and advocated for a ceasefire resolution – proposals a majority of the council has declined to take up. One of the books selected for her book group, “The Message” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, includes an essay about his 2023 experience visiting Israel and the West Bank.
The initial complaint was filed by Rachel Amaru, an organizer with the local chapter of Run for Their Lives, which advocates for the release of hostages held by Hamas, and Aaron Brooks, a regular attendee at city council meetings who has spoken against antisemitism. “I think that Taishya Adams should step down from city council,” Amaru previously told Boulder Reporting Lab.
When a resident files a code of conduct complaint, the city attorney can appoint outside counsel to investigate when a conflict of interest exists. The investigator’s findings are then presented to council, which can impose sanctions, including a motion of censure.
The Boulder City Council is expected to decide this week whether to hire special counsel for a separate, more recent complaint involving a similar allegation.
Clarification: A previous version of this story said Adams represents the Boulder-Nablus Sister City Project. It was updated to clarify that she is a council liaison for the project.
Common sense prevails, but only after great and unnecessary wastage of the public’s time by the usual pressure groups.
Agreed. This avenue of isolating a single council member for holding political views that some voters disagree with is inappropriate and a waste of time and resources.
There should be an expedited way to determine if these types of frivolous complaints even have any merit. This was clearly a bogus complaint and those trolls are the ones who should be held accountable. Pure bs.
The Ft. Collins Deputy City Attorney’s Report doesn’t deny that Council Member Adams discriminated against the Jewish complainants in blocking them from her social media accounts and cancelling them from her book group. The Report relied on a Colorado statute that gives local elected officials permission to do anything they want with their private social media accounts. Had the Deputy City Attorney taken a deeper dive into Adams accounts – if they haven’t been scrubbed – they would have seen a trove of propagandist posts that mirror her City Council positions on Israel and Gaza. But per the Report, even the “Adams For Boulder” account – with posts announcing that “We’re (the City of Boulder) Hiring” – is deemed ‘personal’ (so why have two accounts).
As for the book club claim, the Report similarly grants Adams license to discriminate by concluding that Adams’s book club was not conducted in her official capacity, even though the syllabus pertains to her Council agenda.
The Report takes a purely legalistic approach to ethics complaints, ignoring the legislative intent quoted in the Report: “It is the intent of the city council to: (1) Establish rules of conduct that meet or exceed the rules established by the Colorado State Constitution and the Colorado Revised Statutes. (2) Establish expectations to encourage public officials and public employees to maintain the highest standard of conduct to justify the public trust that they enjoy.” In other words, we can should do better than allowing Council members to hide behind legal shields and erode public confidence in cases of alleged discrimination. And we should hold Adams to walking-her-talk about inclusiveness, the equal dignity and value of all, and “… co-creat[ing] new rules of engagement that honor and respect all living beings.” https://www.adamsforboulder.com/
BRL also notes that “Adams, who is a council liaison for the Boulder-Nablus Sister City Project, has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza”. Well, how does that smell? Adams has successfully pushed Mayor Brockett and the Council into low standards of conduct, ethics-be-damned and looking away from obvious conflicts of interest.