The Daily Sentinel: The Colorado General Assembly is getting mighty casual about honoring the public’s right to know.

On Wednesday, the Colorado Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill that rewrites Colorado sunshine laws so that public bodies can disclose just one finalist when choosing a new chief executive. We spelled out in an April 2 editorial how this bill could facilitate cronyism and inappropriate political considerations when hiring important taxpayer-funded positions. Nevertheless, the bill has been forwarded to Gov. Jared Polis.

The troubling trend of encouraging secrecy continues. Today, the House Finance Committee will take up House Bill 21-1214, which passed the House Judiciary Committee on a 7-4 vote last week. This bill would allow for lower-level criminal records to be sealed. Public access to many arrest records would be closed when no criminal charges have been filed. It lets some former offenders with multiple convictions — and those who have received full pardons — petition to have their records sealed.

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