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.
The town board of Del Norte violated the Colorado Open Meetings Law by censuring a fellow board member during a closed executive session, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled, reversing a judge’s decision and invalidating the censure.
Denying a Pagosa Springs lawyer legal standing to sue a school district because he doesn’t live within its boundaries “would drastically and substantively alter the protections” of the Colorado Open Meetings Law, not only for him, “but for all persons,” the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition and the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado say in a court filing.
The state’s second-highest court affirmed a judge’s order to disclose video surveillance footage showing three Woodland Park school board members talking with a candidate for superintendent after a public meeting in December 2022.
A Pagosa Springs lawyer who routinely sues school boards around the state for violations of the open meetings law is defending his role as a “private attorney general” in a case now before Colorado’s second-highest court.
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.
Several key rulings in 2023 showed why courts matter so much for enforcing and interpreting Colorado’s open government laws.
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.
In a victory for the Aurora Sentinel, the Colorado Court of Appeals reversed a district court ruling and ordered Aurora to publicly release the recording of an executive session in which city council members ended censure proceedings against a fellow councilor.
