From The Durango Herald: Apparently, we want to know about selling marijuana, who underbid us for that city contract and what agreements the city of Durango has made with outside groups.
The city of Durango processed 87 requests for public records in the past year, denying only three, according to the city government’s own records.
The Durango Herald recently requested an accounting of all records requests received by the city from Nov. 1, 2013, to Oct. 31.
The requests shed light on residents’ interactions with city government and the issues that animate them.
Documents related to new marijuana businesses were a popular topic of requests. So were business and residential developments. Several requesters wanted to examine bids for city contracts.
The Colorado Open Records Act allows anyone to request documents held by government agencies, with some narrow exceptions. Government agencies generally have three working days to respond.
According to the city’s policy, the first 10 pages of any request are free. Additional pages are 25 cents each. If research and retrieval takes more than one hour, the city begins charging $30 per hour for staff time.
The city also forbids photographing of public records.
Many of the requests came from lawyers, business people or members of the media. Eighteen of the requests, or about 20 percent, were submitted by Herald reporters.
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