CFOIC looks back: Transparency highlights and lowlights in 2015
The private emails flap was one of many transparency-related stories we highlighted in 2015 or broke ourselves.
The private emails flap was one of many transparency-related stories we highlighted in 2015 or broke ourselves.
To get a letter to convicted mass killer James Holmes at the Colorado State Penitentiary in Cañon City, you’ll need the inmate number assigned to him by the Colorado Department of Corrections. But until Friday, the DOC had withheld that information from the news media and the public for security reasons and to prevent him from trying to profit from his notoriety.
Colorado gets an “F” for public access to information in a Center for Public Integrity report released Monday that ranks each state on matters of transparency and accountability.
For the CFOIC, revisiting 2014 reveals a somewhat troubling string of stories about issues and problems affecting government transparency in Colorado. Consider them one by one and you might not be all that concerned. But put them in a list and you could reasonably conclude that open government in the Centennial State is still a work in progress.
Reporter Teresa Benns has endured verbal attacks and threats of physical violence while documenting and commenting on the workings and failings of government in Saguache County and the small town of Center. She perseveres because it’s her duty, she said, accepting the CFOIC’s Jean Otto Friend of Freedom Award.
The CFOIC questions why the public had to wait so long to see the Aurora theater shooting response report and why certain already well-publicized names and details have been X’d out.
Some governmental entities in Colorado refuse to release meeting minutes to the public until they are officially approved at the next board meeting, which could be weeks away. Is that how it’s supposed to work?
El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa should make a sequel to his sex-scandal apology video. I’ll be happy to write the script and direct. Let’s title it: Game of Denials.
Fees for public records, protecting the confidential sources of journalists, the Open Meetings Law. These weren’t the topics that grabbed the biggest headlines during the during the 2014 legislative session. But that doesn’t diminish their importance.
A bill to ease the process for sealing the records of marijuana crimes now legal in Colorado didn’t last long in the Colorado Legislature.