Judge: School bus driver disciplinary records are public
Complaints and disciplinary actions against public school bus drivers are not “personnel” records that must be kept confidential, an Arapahoe County District Court judge ruled.
Steve Zansberg
Zansberg: Why we shouldn’t hide what police body cameras show
Congress and state legislatures that provide public funds to police departments to deploy body-worn cameras should attach strings to that purse and mandate that there be a strong presumption of public access to such recordings, with only narrow, carefully defined exceptions.
Colorado Supreme Court won’t hear appeal by teachers’ union in sick-leave records case
The Colorado Supreme Court declined to review a state appeals court decision holding that sick-leave records are not part of a public school teacher’s confidential personnel file.
Is the public entitled to know how school bus drivers are disciplined?
News organizations and government-employee unions clashed in an Arapahoe County courtroom over whether the public is entitled to inspect complaints and disciplinary actions against school bus drivers.
Fish: Getting precinct-level election results from Park County ‘like a goofy cartoon’
The Park County clerk’s ban on cellphones and laptops made getting precinct-level election results seem like a goofy cartoon for journalist Sandra Fish.
Englewood gets competing legal opinions on closed-door selection of city attorney finalist
Lawyers disagree on whether Colorado’s Sunshine Law permits the Englewood City Council to choose a finalist for the city attorney’s job behind closed doors.
Government employee records in Colorado: What’s confidential, what’s not?
Colorado’s open-records law is clear: A government employee’s personnel file is off limits to the public. But which records, exactly, are part of that confidential file?
Lawmakers OK restrictions on medical pot advertising despite First Amendment concerns
First Amendment concerns didn’t prevent a panel of state lawmakers from endorsing a prohibition against medical marijuana advertising that is likely to reach youths under 18.
Judge orders unsealing of redacted affidavits in Planned Parenthood shooting case
An El Paso County judge reversed himself and ordered the unsealing of probable cause affidavits related to last November’s shooting rampage at a Planned Parenthood Clinic in Colorado Springs.
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.