Associated Press: A Democratic senator is trying again to modernize Colorado’s Open Records Act with a bill that would require government agencies to release public records in searchable data formats, like Excel spreadsheets, that are easy for the public to analyze.
A similar bill submitted last year by Sen. John Kefalas of Fort Collins died in a GOP-led Senate committee over concerns about costs to government agencies and their ability to permanently redact sensitive or private information from requested records.
The Senate State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee will hold a hearing Monday on Kefalas’ new bill.
The bill, co-sponsored by Democratic Rep. Daniel Pabon of Denver, is one of several this legislative session that would modify Colorado’s open records law. Another bill would open up to the public state records showing whether companies have cheated workers on their wages. State wage-theft investigations are considered trade secrets under a century-old law.
There’s already been one setback: Democrats killed a Republican-sponsored bill intended to bring more transparency to the judicial branch.
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