A legal move by the Jefferson County teachers’ union to block the release of names of teachers who collectively called in sick last fall incorrectly claims that information on absences is a private personnel matter, the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition argued in a friend-of-the-court brief.
An Arvada resident who sued his city for using secret ballots to fill a council vacancy can indeed show that he was injured by the closed-door process, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled Thursday in overturning a district judge’s decision to dismiss the case.
Public access to records on employees of the Colorado Judicial Branch would be substantially more limited than what’s available regarding other state government workers under proposed rules endorsed Wednesday by a committee of the judiciary.
How is it OK for Jeffco school district and union negotiators to meet privately? Didn’t 70 percent of Colorado voters last Election Day approve Proposition 104, requiring open collective bargaining negotiations in Colorado school districts?
The $25 billion budget bill that passed the Colorado Senate includes a relatively miniscule appropriation for a new position in the Attorney General’s office to help with a growing number of requests for public records.
A bill that underscores the public’s right to record police activities was met with opposition from law enforcement authorities and prosecutors who called the measure overly punitive and worried about its effect on their ability to obtain recordings as evidence in criminal cases.
With the backing of police chiefs and sheriffs statewide, two law enforcement transparency bills won easy, unanimous passage in a Colorado Senate committee.
The Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act isn’t as well known or as well understood as its sister statute, the Colorado Open Records Act. That’s why the CFOIC assembled a panel of experts to discuss the law that governs the release of criminal justice records – and to provide tips and workarounds for getting the records you want.
As our friends at the Sunlight Foundation recently wrote, “Our legally-protected access to public email records – the most voluminous source of official written records – is failing.” That’s true here in Colorado.
A bill to let one-time offenders petition to seal the public records of their misdemeanors died in a House committee following opposition from prosecutors, victims’ advocates and law enforcement officials.
