Gov. Jared Polis’ signature on Senate Bill 23-286 will change the Colorado Open Records Act in some small but important ways when the measure takes effect in early August. Here are some things to know about what the CORA bill does — and does not do.
Despite a looming inflationary increase in fees, state lawmakers in the 2023 legislative session never addressed the often-high cost of obtaining public records in Colorado but did vote to eliminate some nagging obstacles for users of the Colorado Open Records Act.
A CORA modernization bill passed a Colorado Senate committee with lawmakers adding a provision that prohibits state agencies and local governments from requiring requesters to show identification to obtain public records.
Unlike a draft circulating at the state Capitol since mid-March, the introduced version of a bill amending the Colorado Open Records Act would not affect public records fees, which are set to rise with inflation in 2024.
Because emails are created and maintained digitally, Bedingfield was surprised and annoyed when, three weeks later, Monument Academy had her pick up a box of paper records — with some of the 600 pages “warped as if wet and then dried” and others still damp and stuck together.
A major battle plays out daily in Colorado as some of our elected and appointed officials – all of whom took a solemn oath to serve all Coloradans – do everything possible to frustrate disclosing information belonging to the people. These fights involve access to records concerning public policies created with taxpayer dollars.
Journalists say Senate Bill 17-040 generally seems to be working as intended, even if some records custodians have to be reminded about the law change and some have taken much longer than three working days to fill requests. The sample size is small, but early tests of the new law are encouraging.
