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.
CORA
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.
Bill to close breathalyzer database won’t affect police DUI records
Legislation to close portions of the state database of breath-alcohol test results won’t affect information available in law enforcement reports on drunken driving arrests, the bill’s sponsor said.
Database records bill dies, but stakeholders hope to work on a compromise
Opposition from a state agency and several local governments doomed proposed legislation intended to modernize Colorado’s open-records law by requiring that public records kept in database formats be available to the public in similar formats.
Senator: It may be ‘impossible’ to open records of nonprofits serving people with disabilities
The bill is still alive, but it’s becoming clear that 20 nonprofits serving people with disabilities won’t be covered by the Colorado Open Records Act any time soon.
School board ethics commission bill dies
State senators rejected the proposed creation of a school board ethics commission to hear alleged violations of Colorado’s Open Meetings Law and the Colorado Open Records Act.