From the Colorado Springs Independent:  “Putting the fox in charge of the henhouse” may be an overused phrase — yet it’s hard to think of another that more aptly describes the way the city of Colorado Springs responds to records requests for city officials’ emails, the Indy has discovered.

While some agencies instruct IT personnel to comb servers for messages sought under the Colorado Open Records Act, the city simply leaves that job in the hands of those whose emails are being sought.

And the city contends that once an email is deleted, it’s no longer a public record subject to CORA. Simple as that.

A case in point is the Independent‘s multiple requests recently for Mayor Steve Bach’s emails to and from certain people. The city said there were no emails. But some did exist, and fell within the scope of the Indy‘s request. How do we know? Because the Indy obtained four emails from other sources and verified their authenticity.

Withholding those emails would seem to be a violation of CORA. Yet the city maintains it’s not that simple.

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