From The Greeley Tribune:  We’re disappointed a committee in the Colorado Senate last week defeated a bill that would have brought the Colorado open records law into the 21st century.

The Republican majority on the State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee voted 3-2 to kill a bill that would have required government agencies to release public records in their original spreadsheet or other computer-friendly formats.

There is hope, however, the bill will come back this session with amendments that would address the reasons for the negative votes. We applaud Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg of Sterling, whose district includes Weld County, for tackling the issue.

State law currently does not require government agencies to release data in user-friendly formats such as Microsoft Excel, and instead allows the information to be released in printed formats. That makes it difficult for the public to analyze and organize the data into meaningful information, and also it allows the agencies to charge exorbitant sums for retrieval and copying.

In its simplest form, it requires agencies to release public information in the same way it is kept — electronically. But members of the subcommittee expressed security concerns and wonder if confidential information redacted from records could be restored using so-called metadata. Others worried about hackers accessing sensitive information, such as student records or proprietary business information, during electronic delivery.

Sonnenberg offered to work with the bill’s sponsor, John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins, to tweak the bill to address the security concerns, and Kefalas said he would be open to the change and might bring back legislation this session.

We’re hoping that happens.

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