executive sessions

CFOIC/ACLU brief: Court of Appeals must not restrict legal standing to file open meetings lawsuits

Denying a Pagosa Springs lawyer legal standing to sue a school district because he doesn’t live within its boundaries “would drastically and substantively alter the protections” of the Colorado Open Meetings Law, not only for him, “but for all persons,” the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition and the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado say in a court filing.






CFOIC asks Court of Appeals to reverse judge’s ruling that town board’s censure of fellow trustee was not subject to Colorado’s open meetings law

A district court judge made “egregious” errors last year in deciding that Colorado’s Sunshine Law did not require members of an elected town board to discuss the censure of a fellow board member in an open meeting, the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition contends in a brief submitted to the Court of Appeals.


Wrap-up: Colorado legislature again shuns CORA cost reform in 2023 session but removes some obstacles for records requesters

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 terrible so-called solution’: Amended open meetings bill still weakens enforcement of provision on executive session announcements

As amended by the Colorado House, an open meetings bill still significantly weakens Coloradans’ ability to enforce a 22-year-old provision in the Sunshine Law requiring school boards and other local public bodies to announce the topics of closed-door meetings with some specificity.