By Christine Gazda, Garfield & Hecht, P.C.
The Colorado Open Records Act (“CORA”), C.R.S. § 24-72-101, et seq., requires that the government respond to open records requests within three business days. If a request is particularly voluminous, a municipality may extend this time period by an additional seven working days. Although the government can charge up to $33.58 per hour for responding to the request, if the request takes less than an hour, the requestor pays nothing.
Our local government clients deal with large CORA requests on a regular basis. Within the initial three-day period, we must work together to determine the scope of the request, whether the government has responsive records, and whether such records are actually open to inspection. Such work is no small feat, especially while many local governments deal with staff shortages, and COVID-19 and its variants are ever-present.
All who work in government know this truth: CORA is an unfunded mandate that is ultimately paid for by taxpayers. Keeping in mind the purpose behind CORA, is it possible to make compliance less burdensome and less expensive for taxpayers?
Rather than submit generalized, all-inclusive, “kitchen sink”-type requests, it would behoove requestors, local governments, and taxpayers to ensure that requests are narrowly tailored. Although not required by statute, cooperation between requestor and government staff to accomplish this would yield a lower cost to all and perhaps make compliance with CORA less onerous.
For more on local governments and open records requests:
In Aspen and Snowmass please contact Chris Bryan (cbryan@garfieldhecht.com, 970-920-5808) or Dave Lenyo (dlenyo@garfieldhecht.com, 970-920-5813).
In Carbondale please contact Kelcey Nichols (knichols@garfieldhecht.com, 970-925-1703).
In Crested Butte please contact John Belkin (jbelkin@garfieldhecht.com, 970-349-6698).
In Denver please contact Jason Buckley (jbuckley@garfieldhecht.com, 720-961-9057).
In Glenwood please contact David McConaughy (dmcconaughy@garfieldhecht.com, 970-920-5801) or Christine Gazda (cgazda@garfieldhecht.com, 970-920-5803).
In the Vail Valley please contact Kursten Canada (kcanada@garfieldhecht.com, 970-949-1566).
