Colorado – Page 3 – National Freedom of Information Coalition

Why Colorado Lawmakers Aren’t Totally Open To Digital Open Records

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Advocates say Senate Bill 40 does something simple: It brings the Colorado Open Records Act into the 21st century by requiring state agencies to provide information in a digital format — such as a database or a spreadsheet — where feasible.

“These are the people’s records. We are the custodians, we are the stewards of these records,” said Democratic Sen. John Kefalas of Fort Collins. He’s the main sponsor of the bill.

For some, the issue is more complicated.

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Colorado: Open records bill changes would limit access, advocates say

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Proposed last-minute changes to to Sen. John Kefalas' open records bill could remove swaths of currently available information from disclosure, open records advocates say.

The bill, which has been set for hearing twice and twice been delayed, will be heard at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday by the Senate's State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee.

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From CFOIC: House committee unanimously endorses bill to open records on wage-law violations

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A wage-theft transparency measure that died in the Colorado legislature last year passed unanimously Thursday in the House Judiciary Committee.

The amended version of HB 17-1021 is identical to a proposal that earned bipartisan House support in 2016 but was killed in a Senate committee. The bill allows the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment to disclose whether an employer has cheated its workers.

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Colo.: Proposed bill revives state treasurer’s demands for access to PERA records

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Colorado lawmakers are making an effort to revive the state treasurer's demands for unfettered access to all records of the state's largest pension plan.

House Bill 17-1114, sponsored by Rep. Justin Everett, R-Littleton, and Sen. Jake Tate, R-Centennial, would give the state treasurer access to any information kept by the Public Employees' Retirement Association (PERA).

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Boulder joins national effort to rethink open data, citizen engagement

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Boulder will take part in a national effort to help cities exchange best practices regarding the use of data to improve municipal government.

The effort is called What Works Cities, and it's initiative of ex-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's group Bloomberg Philanthropies.

What Works Cities launched in April 2015 as a way to help midsize cities — defined as having populations between 100,000 and 1 million — "enhance their use of data and evidence to improve services, inform local decision-making and engage residents."

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CO: No Charges In City Attorney Open Records Case

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Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey said Friday his office will not be filing criminal charges against former Denver City Attorney Scott Martinez or any other members of the city attorney’s office in connection with the curious handling of a Colorado Open Records Act request from 2015.

“I don’t think the left hand knew what the right hand was doing,” Morrissey told CBS4. “They should have turned this over to you (CBS4). I believe it was wrong.”

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Co.: Town agrees to pay $35,063 in attorney fees after losing suit

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The Pagosa Springs Town Council agreed at its meeting last Thursday, Oct. 20, to pay fees and costs of $35,063.50 to attorney Matt Roane, who represented the plaintiff in a suit against the town under the Colorado Sunshine Law.

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Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition: State board of ed ‘politicized’ approval process for data requests

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Education researchers and advocates are worried that a newly formalized approval process will make it harder to get information needed to adequately evaluate existing K-12 programs and to recommend innovations.

The process, adopted by the State Board of Education in September to implement a 2016 state law on student data privacy, requires that the elected seven-member board approve all outside requests for student-level data.

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CO: Weld County commissioners quarrel over utility company meetings, document release

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After one county commissioner released confidential records to protest county meetings with utility companies, the rest of the commissioners are left scratching their heads.

Commissioner Sean Conway recently released emails, which detailed the county’s attorney giving the board legal advice before a planned September meeting with Xcel Energy, alleging the meeting was a kind of unethically private correspondence called ex parte communication. The emails went public this week when a conservative blog published them.

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Open-government wins and losses in the 2016 Colorado legislative session

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Colorado lawmakers in 2016 rejected an opportunity to bring the state’s open-records law into the 21st century.

They also decided that wage-law violations should remain “trade secrets” and that internal affairs files on judicial branch employees should remain confidential, which isn’t the case for other state government workers.

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