Open records bill clears key hurdle
The ever-evolving effort to modernize Colorado’s public records law cleared another key hurdle Monday after House Democrats reversed a Senate Republican effort to bring the judicial branch under the Colorado Open Records Act — an issue that has divided the two sides for years.
But even after that and four more amendments were adopted Monday in the House Finance Committee, it remains unclear what the final version will look like — or if it can be reconciled with the version that passed the Republican-controlled Senate earlier this session.
“We want to get this right,” said Rep. Dan Pabon, D-Denver, one of the bill’s sponsors. “We want to find the right balance here.”
The measure advanced along party lines over the objections of a number of government officials who predicted dire consequences if the bill were to take effect. They said there would be escalating compliance costs, a rise in lawsuits and the release of private medical information of Medicaid patients — even though medical records are explicitly exempt from disclosure under federal law.
The concept behind Senate Bill 40 is simple. If someone requests a digital public record in a digital format — say, a spreadsheet — the bill would require that it be provided in a similar format.
But in practice, it has become ground zero for a broader debate about the sort of information that’s available under the Colorado Open Records Act, with a number of government agencies pushing to exempt new records from disclosure, citing safety and privacy concerns.
It has also exposed fundamental disagreements between transparency advocates and some public officials. At one point, Jeremy Hueth, an attorney for the University of Colorado, argued at the hearing that the information the university keeps in databases today isn’t a “record.” That interpretation contradicts multiple sections of CORA, which references data in its definitions of public records.
“This bill does not change what people can attain. It changes how they get it,” said Republican Secretary of State Wayne Williams, who spoke in favor of the bill. “That’s all.”
Proponents include media organizations and advocacy groups across the political spectrum, who say the change is needed to provide access to government information in a useful format. If the measure is adopted, Colorado would join more than a dozen other states and the federal government in allowing public information kept electronically to be requested in a digital format. The amended measure heads to the Appropriations Committee.