Elbert Co. still hasn’t released minutes of ‘Jerry Springer-like’ commission meeting from 2015
Six months after a controversial, contentious meeting of the Elbert County Commission, county residents are still waiting to read the meeting minutes.
CORA
Open-government wins and losses in the 2016 Colorado legislative session
On matters affecting public information, the General Assembly did little during this year’s session to improve access. The most significant legislative win for government transparency doesn’t actually affect governments.
Senate committee kills measure to open records on wage-law violations
With no discussion, a Senate committee killed legislation that would have allowed the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment to disclose whether a company has cheated its workers.
Amended bill requires public disclosures for nonprofits serving people with disabilities
Although nonprofits serving people with disabilities in Colorado won’t be subject to the state’s open-records law, it appears they will be required to provide the public with certain financial information and other documents.
House committee votes to open records on wage-law violations
Information on employers who violate wage laws in Colorado shouldn’t be considered confidential “trade secrets,” a panel of state lawmakers decided.
Lawmakers reject bill to make records of judicial branch employees subject to CORA
Lawmakers rejected a proposal to treat the administrative records of people who work for Colorado’s judicial branch like the records of those who work for the executive and legislative branches and all local governments in Colorado.
Senators: Audit nonprofits serving people with disabilities, don’t subject them to CORA
The state’s 20 nonprofits serving people with disabilities shouldn’t be subject to the Colorado Open Records Act, a Senate panel decided.
Retention of government emails in Colorado ‘an honor system thing’
Whether emails are retained by governments in Colorado is “really sort of an honor system thing,” State Archivist George Orlowski told us. “The senders and recipients of emails have to decide whether there’s something important that needs to be preserved.”
Zansberg: The right to inspect the public’s records
Sen. John Kefalas and Rep. Dan Pabon deserve thanks for their valiant, but unsuccessful, effort to guarantee the public’s right to inspect its records. Their bill, SB 16-037, would have clarified that Coloradans enjoy the right to obtain copies of public records in the same digitized format in which government maintains those records.
Cloudy conditions for Sunshine Week: A pile of paper instead of a spreadsheet
Aurora’s response to a reporter’s records request illustrates a common problem facing journalists and anyone else in Colorado who wishes to analyze public records kept in spreadsheets or databases. Too often, they get PDFs or stacks of paper instead. This makes analysis difficult or sometimes impossible.