Sunshine Week, which started Sunday, is an annual celebration of Americans’ right to know what government is doing. This year, there is far more to be concerned about than to celebrate, both nationally and here in Colorado.
Already in 2025, the White House barred the Associated Press from the Oval Office and announced that it, not the correspondents’ association, will decide which reporters participate in the presidential press pool. The cost-slashing Department of Government Efficiency tried to declare itself exempt from the federal Freedom of Information Act. Thousands of U.S. government webpages suddenly went offline, depriving the public of vital information regarding public health and safety. And FOIA officers were among those fired from federal agencies like the Office of Personnel Management.
“Good luck with that they just got rid of the entire privacy team,” someone with an OPM email address wrote in response to a FOIA request made by CNN.
In Colorado, the threats to government transparency are more subtle but still serious.
Exorbitant fees are among the biggest obstacles to disclosure. The Colorado Open Records Act entitles you to copies of any records of state and local government unless a specific statutory exemption applies. But if it’s going to cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars to get those records, are they really public?
Governments can now charge $41.37 an hour — after the first hour — to process CORA requests, thanks to an inflationary factor in the law that boosted the maximum rate 23 percent last July 1. Multiply $41.37 by however many hours it purportedly takes to fulfill a request — the records custodian decides that — and getting public records can quickly become unaffordable.
The Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition has for years asked the state legislature to reevaluate CORA’s out-of-balance research-and-retrieval fee formula. Instead of doing so, lawmakers this session will likely pass a bill that gives records custodians up to three weeks to fulfill requests made by the public, who are pretty much powerless when the statutory deadlines aren’t met.
Delayed responses are a common impediment to government transparency. Forcing requesters to write paper checks to pay for public records is another. And CFOIC regularly helps people fight incorrectly applied exemptions to the law via our hotline and sunshine laws guide.
New exemptions, making certain records confidential, are added almost every year.
Legislation in 2024 greatly expanded the number of public school employees whose evaluations are not subject to public disclosure. If disciplinary records are used to prepare those evaluations, the Court of Appeals ruled recently, they too are off-limits to the public, shielding from scrutiny educators who are found to have engaged in misconduct.
A bill approved this session hides the identities of ranchers and others who seek and get compensation from the state for property damage caused by wildlife — despite the wildlife commission recently naming two ranchers who are receiving nearly $350,000 in state funds.
Another successful bill keeps secret the details of “name, image and likeness” contracts between state universities and student-athletes, some of whom are worth six-figure deals to exploit their star status. If you suppress that information, you can’t scrutinize whether NIL deals are fair or treat men and women athletes equitably.
There also is a significant new exemption to the Colorado Open Meetings Law.
A year ago, ironically during Sunshine Week, the legislature unbound itself from major portions of the law, redefining “public business” as it applies to the General Assembly and letting lawmakers communicate behind the scenes in an unlimited way — via email, text message or other means — even though the law still declares that “the formation of public policy is public business and may not be conducted in secret.” Democratic legislators used the newly enacted provision to exclude reporters from caucus meetings before an August special session on property taxes.
The voters of Colorado initiated the Sunshine Act of 1972, but the legislature is free to amend it. It’s not in the Colorado Constitution.
Should it be? Should the public’s right to attend government meetings and inspect government records be enshrined in our constitution as it is in seven other states? You might be asked that question when you fill out your ballot in 2026.
Stay tuned.
Jeffrey A. Roberts is the executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition. Visit coloradofoic.org for more information and the organization’s “Guide to Colorado’s Open Records and Open Meetings Laws.”
