A committee of state senators endorsed major changes to the way the open meetings law affects the Colorado General Assembly, approving a bill that narrows the definition of “public business” and lets lawmakers communicate by email and text message without it being a “meeting” under the law.
State lawmakers could voluntarily post drafts of proposed legislation — before legislative sessions begin — on a “clearinghouse” website of the Colorado General Assembly under a measure endorsed by a House committee.
Records custodians would have the power to deem someone a “vexatious requester” and bar that person from obtaining public records for 30 working days under a bill introduced in the Colorado House that also lets government entities take longer to fill most requests made under the Colorado Open Records Act.
A legislative committee narrowly endorsed a proposed $150,000 study by the Colorado Attorney General on ways to prevent and combat the spread of misinformation and disinformation after proponents tried to allay concerns the measure threatens First Amendment free speech rights.
Nearly six years after then-Gov. John Hickenlooper vetoed a bill to seal autopsy reports on minors, Colorado’s county coroners are again trying to restrict public access to those records.
State lawmakers want to adjust a 2023 juvenile privacy law that recently forced Colorado’s judicial branch to restrict attorneys’ access to criminal court records, also creating delays in processing document requests from journalists and the public.
Colorado lawmakers’ use of an anonymous private survey to prioritize bills impacting the state budget “thwarts the entire purpose” of the Colorado Open Meetings Law because it shields the public “from knowledge that it would otherwise be entitled to know,” a judge found.
The state’s highest court should reaffirm that people who sue state and local government entities are still entitled to obtain public records from those entities by using the Colorado Open Records Act, the ACLU of Colorado and the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition say in a new court filing.
Because of a 2023 law that protects the privacy of juveniles, the Colorado Judicial Department plans to limit attorneys’ access to criminal court records and clerks may take longer to process document requests from journalists and the public.
Lawmakers did not, however, tackle the No. 1 barrier to obtaining public records in Colorado — exorbitant fees. And that problem will only get worse on July 1, 2024, when inflation boosts the maximum-allowable hourly rate to process CORA requests from $33.58 to a whopping $40 or $41.
