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Originally published on March 8, 2021 8:51 am
Colorado is making it easier for residents to see what their government is spending their tax dollars on, down to every last paperclip and coffee order in the governor’s office.
Late last year, the state quietly turbocharged its clunky and neglected online checkbook by migrating millions of lines of financial data to a new software system.
Doug Platt, a spokesman for the state’s department of personnel and administration, says Colorado was able to repurpose software that was already being used in another branch of government.
The tweaks result in faster load times and a checkbook that is updated daily, delivering on the state’s decade-old promise of giving taxpayers a real-time glimpse into government spending.
This week on Local Motion, news director Gavin Dahl speaks with Erin McIntyre, co-publisher of the Ouray County Plaindealer newspaper, and Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition executive director Jeff Roberts. Together they explore the significance of the reverse CORA filed in district court by Ouray County administrator Connie Hunt and county attorney Carol Viner after they declined an open records request by the newspaper for personnel files about public health staffers responding to the coronavirus pandemic. KVNF News requested an interview or statement from the county officials with more than 24 hours notice, but received no response before airtime.
A similar reverse CORA backfired on the Town of Paonia a few years ago, as explained by CFOIC. You can read the Plaindealer s news coverage about this story here and here, and Erin s editorial column Records request is about clearing up a blurry picture here.
The tweaks result in faster load times and a checkbook that is updated daily, delivering on the state’s decade-old promise of giving taxpayers a real-time glimpse into government spending.
Melanie Knapp, an Academy School District 20 parent and former teacher who contended that closed-door meetings the Board of Education held in 2019 during its search for a new superintendent violated the Colorado Open Meetings Law, will receive some of the information she sought to have made public.
The board must disclose the recordings and transcripts of private executive sessions that occurred after the initial 26 candidates were reduced to five finalists, El Paso County District Court Judge Thomas Kane ruled this week.
However, the board does not have to release materials from previous executive sessions when board members narrowed the field of candidates, he determined.