Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition – Page 3 – National Freedom of Information Coalition

Colorado lawmakers seek to boost whistleblower protections

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State lawmakers introduced three bills in the opening weeks of the 2016 legislative session intended to safeguard Colorado whistleblowers.

The measures would: 1) prohibit municipalities, counties and school districts from disciplining employees who report abuses; 2) shield state employees from disciplinary action for reporting “non-public” information; and 3) protect homeowners from retaliation or discrimination by homeowners’ associations.

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A 21st-century open-records law for Colorado

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When was the last time you used microfilm or microfiche to find information? Does the phrase “on-line bulletin board” bring to mind that screeching noise associated with dial-up connections from 20 years ago?

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Colorado lawmaker plans bill to make government more transparent

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A Colorado state senator plans to introduce legislation next session that will require governments to provide electronic databases in the format they're kept after open records advocates questioned why some government agencies are less transparent.

Denver and other governments often provide databases and spreadsheets in locked PDF formats even when the records are maintained in Microsoft Excel or other formats, which make them easier to sort and analyze.

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Colorado appeals court hears arguments in dispute over disclosure of teacher sick-leave records

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An attorney for the Jefferson County Education Association argued this week that a Colorado district court judge erred in ruling that teacher sick-leave records can be disclosed to the public.

The lower-court judge made the personnel exemption in the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) “an empty shell” when she narrowly defined confidential records to include only a public employee’s “personal” information, JCEA lawyer Sharyn Dreyer told a three-judge panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals.

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Colorado school board to get sunshine law training — in secret

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Jeffco’s five new school board members will take about two hours at their next meeting to hear legal advice on “the Colorado Open Meetings Law, the Colorado Open Records Act, conflicts of interest and standards of conduct for local public officials.”

The sunshine-law training will be held behind closed doors in an executive session.

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Proposed 2016 bill would open records of nonprofits serving people with disabilities

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Prompted by the recent financial troubles of a nonprofit that serves people with disabilities, a state lawmaker plans 2016 legislation to open the records of all such agencies in Colorado that receive more than half their funds from public sources.

Sen. Irene Aguilar said Rocky Mountain Human Services and similar nonprofits should be covered by the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) so that local governments and the public can be confident that the limited amount of money available for programs to help vulnerable populations is spent appropriately.

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Evans police body camera footage used to confirm excessive force complaint

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Last month, Evans police Chief Rick Brandt participated in a panel discussion about body-worn cameras and publicly revealed an incident some chiefs might prefer to sweep under the rug.

In July, following the arrest of a man suspected of being involved in a fight at a house party, Brandt fired one of his officers after camera footage confirmed he had used excessive force while placing the man into custody.

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Lack of transparency keeps Colorado in the dark about police misbehavior

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Tuesday, Nov. 24 marks the first anniversary of a grand jury's failure to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the August 2014 shooting death of black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

When Wilson was cleared by the grand jury, riots broke out in Ferguson and elsewhere, and the Black Lives Matter movement was born, challenging cities across the country to examine policies pertaining to the use of excessive force by their police departments.

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Some Colorado counties charge thousands of dollars for public inspection of ballot records

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The public can inspect voted ballots in Colorado. So says a state Court of Appeals decision in 2011 and state legislation enacted the following year.

But some counties are making it prohibitively expensive for at least one election watchdog to obtain the records he says are needed to independently audit the accuracy of voting systems.

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Editorial: CSU does disservice to public with lack of transparency

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The recent recall of three members of the Jefferson County School Board by an overwhelming majority of voters demonstrates that Coloradans do not abide by governmental officials’ shirking the public’s right to know how public business is conducted and how taxpayer funds are expended.

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