This story was first published at Colorado Newsline.
DENVER | Colorado voters could be asked this year to amend the state’s Constitution to include the right to know the goings-on of state and local governments through public meetings and open records.
A ballot initiative filed Friday by the Independence Institute and the League of Women Voters of Colorado would codify that value in Article II of the constitution by establishing the “fundamental constitutional right of all persons to know the affairs of all levels of state and local government that guarantees access to public proceedings and public records.”
The Colorado Open Meetings Law, first passed in 1972, requires that most meetings of state and local governmental bodies are properly noticed and open to the public. That means everyone can attend a city council meeting, for example, or request correspondence between state lawmakers, with some exceptions.
But the initiative mentions recent restrictions on that law. In 2024, the Legislature narrowed the definition of “public business” within the state’s open meeting law as it applies to the General Assembly. Last year, the Legislature passed a bill that would have extended the response timeline for records requests, but Gov. Jared Polis vetoed it. Both bills have drawn critics from the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition and other groups.
“A healthy democracy requires informed understanding and public participation in government decision-making. The League of Women Voters of Colorado believes that the people’s right to know is fundamental in a government of, by and for the people,” Beth Hendrix, the executive director of the LWV of Colorado, said in a statement.
A governmental body would need to demonstrate that individual privacy or another state interest “clearly exceeds” the need for transparency in order to close a meeting or make a record unavailable.
The initiative calls for a minimum fine of $1,000 per violation.
After the comment and review period by the Legislative Council and the Office of Legislative Legal Services, the initiative will get a hearing before the state’s Title Board. If it is approved there, proponents can create a petition and gather voter signatures to get the initiative on the ballot. A constitutional amendment needs signatures from at least 2% of voters in each of the 35 state Senate districts.
If it makes it to the ballot, the initiative would need 55% of the vote to pass.