Steamboat Today (Steamboat Springs):  For the past two years, the residents in that Front Range community have been able to log onto a web portal and access the email communications of their elected officials hours after the officials themselves send or receive them.

“It removes suspicions about things,” Troxell said about the email system, which costs the city a little more than $2,000 per year to run and as many as two hours of staff time per week to operate. “It’s been a useful and positive thing for the community.”

Troxell said he can’t think of any downsides to the new email system.

He’s also been surprised at how little impact it’s had on how he and other elected officials communicate with each other and with city staff.

“There wasn’t a single issue that led to us adopting it,” Troxell said. “It was really more of a council mindset that we didn’t want to appear we were hiding things.”

At Fort Collins City Hall, City Clerk Wanda Winkelmann doesn’t spend any time digging through filing cabinets or even searching hard drives to fulfill open records requests.

She also doesn’t send out a lot of bills to residents who are seeking more information about their government’s spending habits.

Visit Steamboat Today for more.