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Legislative Year: 2024 Change
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Bill Detail: HB24-1296

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Title Modifications to the Colorado Open Records Act
Status Senate Committee on State, Veterans, & Military Affairs Postpone Indefinitely (05/01/2024)
Bill Subjects
  • Local Government
  • State Government
House Sponsors M. Soper (R)
C. Kipp (D)
Senate Sponsors J. Marchman (D)
House Committee State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs
Senate Committee State, Veterans and Military Affairs
Date Introduced 02/14/2024
Summary

The bill makes the following changes to the Colorado Open
Records Act (CORA):
  • Requires a custodian to evaluate a request for public
records promptly and for no longer than 2 days. Within the
2-day period the custodian shall notify the requester
whether or not any costs or fees that may apply to the
request and if extenuating circumstances exist that allow
for an extension of the reasonable time to respond to a
CORA request (response period). If there are costs or fees
that may apply, the response period does not begin until the
custodian receives a response from the requester
acknowledging acceptance of the costs or fees.
Alternatively, a requester may revise their request and the
custodian shall evaluate the revised request within the
2-day evaluation period. Otherwise, the response period
begins after the custodian has provided notice to the
requester.
  • Adds an extenuating circumstance that allows for an
extension of the response period when the custodian is not
scheduled to work within the response period;
  • If public records are in the custody and control of someone
who is not scheduled to work within the response period,
a custodian shall notify the requester of the date the person
is scheduled to return to work and make best efforts to
make responsive records available for inspection within the
response period or extended response period, as applicable.
The requester may make a subsequent request for
additional responsive records, if any, on or after the date
the person who is authorized to have custody and control of
the records is scheduled to return to work.
  • Allows a custodian to determine that a requester is a
vexatious requester, requires the custodian to make a sworn
statement in support of the determination to provide to the
requester, allows the custodian a 30-day response period
when a requester is a vexatious requester, and permits the
requester to appeal the determination that the requester is
a vexatious requester to the district court;
  • Excludes a mass medium or newsperson from being a
vexatious requester;
  • Allows a custodian to determine that a request is made for
the direct solicitation of business for pecuniary gain,
requires the custodian to make a sworn statement in support
of the determination to provide to the requester, allows the
custodian a 30-day response period for such a request,
permits the requester to appeal the determination that the
request is made for the direct solicitation of business for
pecuniary gain to the district court, and allows a custodian
to charge the requester for the full cost of responding to the
request notwithstanding the allowance for the first hour of
research and retrieval to otherwise be free of charge and
notwithstanding the statutory cap on fees, which otherwise
would apply;
  • Prohibits disclosure of any other contact information of
students in any public elementary or secondary school in
addition to the prohibition of disclosure of addresses and
telephone numbers that is in current law;
  • Allows a custodian to deny the right of inspection of public
records that are an employee's calendar, unless the public
record is an elected official's calendar or the calendar of an
employee who is in a leadership position or the request is
made by a mass medium or newsperson; and
  • Allows a custodian to treat a CORA request made within
14 calendar days of another CORA request made by the
same person as one request for purposes of calculating the
fee that the custodian may charge to the requester for
research and retrieval of responsive public records.

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with Amendments
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