Access To Government Records
The bill makes changes to the "Colorado Open Records Act" (CORA). and to record retention requirements for state agencies.Definitions. The bill modifies the definition of "public records" (records) in CORA to clarify that writings made, maintained, or kept by the state, including any office of the state, are records. The bill also changes the definition of "electronic mail" to "electronic communication" to encompass all forms of electronic communication.and can be transmitted in digital format, the custodian is required to transmit the record in a digital format by electronic communication unless otherwise requested by the requester or by another mutually-agreed upon transmission method if the size of the record prevents transmission by electronic communication . In addition, the bill prohibits a custodian from converting a digital record into a non-searchable or non-sortable format prior to transmission.
The bill specifies that if an elected official is the subject of a government-authorized investigation into the elected official's alleged sexual harassment in the workplace, the final report of the investigation is a public record; except that the identity of any accuser and any potentially identifiable characteristics of any accuser must be redacted unless the identity of all accusers is already known to the public. records of sexual harassment complaints made against an elected official and the results or report of investigations regarding alleged sexual harassment by an elected official conducted by or for that official's government shall be made available for inspection if the investigation concludes that the elected official is culpable for any act of sexual harassment. The bill specifies that the identity of any accuser, accused who is not an elected official, victim, or witness and any other information that would identify any such person must be redacted.
Records retention requirements. The bill requires all electronic communications sent to or received by an officer or employee of a state agency, the contents of which include any discussion of the public business of the state agency and are relevant to any proceeding in which the state agency is involved, to be retained for at least the length of the applicable proceeding. In addition, the bill requires each state agency to retain all electronic mail messages in its custody or control that may be responsive to a request for records pursuant to CORA until the request for records and any subsequent appeals are resolved.
(Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.)
(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)