Information Governance and Management team debuts new portal for CORA requests

Starting Feb. 1, RTD’s Information Governance and Management (IGM) team introduced a new Colorado Open Records (CORA) request portal and updated the FAQs posed about the CORA process. The portal serves as the entry point for the public to access agency records.

An Open Records landing page on RTD’s website has been refreshed to include links to the portal, the FAQs, reports and policies, financial information and open spatial information (e.g., data feeds).

Navigability of the new portal will feel familiar, said Emily Valdez, Compliance and Privacy Program Manager. The biggest difference from the prior platform is that customers no longer have to create an account if they don’t want to do so.

IGM will also be updating the agency’s policy and procedure for CORA, after which RTD will increase its hourly cost to search, retrieve and review records, reflecting a cost change under the law. After the first hour, which is free, the agency currently charges $30 per hour for staff time required to complete these tasks.

Agency records are open to the public for inspection as provided in CORA. The IGM team encourages employees to browse the new portal and review the FAQs. All records and recordings that the agency compiles are discoverable under CORA. This doesn’t mean records will always be produced because of exceptions under the law, Valdez said, but it is important that employees conduct themselves professionally, with this fact in mind.

Discoverable items can include internal discussions of any sort, such as emails, draft documents and chats on platforms such as Teams. Employees with a work-issued cell phone or who receive a stipend to use their own phone should know that all data in that device, including text messages, are discoverable. Commonly requested items include crime data, videos, requests for proposal, contracts and bid documents. Individuals requesting information span insurance companies, attorneys, media employees and citizens interested in agency business.

In the coming months, IGM will be introducing another significant change: a migration of RTD’s current enterprise content management system, Laserfiche On-Premise, to Laserfiche Cloud. The new online document management system allows users to upload, view and work with content using a streamlined web interface. It will provide RTD employees with improved remote access, better storage and increased security.

“This is going to the web, so not only will there be ease of accessing it, employees will also be able to access it on portable devices,” Valdez said. The new platform, she added, “enables RTD to better manage its records and empowers our people to be able to use their records efficiently and effectively.”

IGM will be sharing more information in the coming weeks about how information will migrate to Laserfiche Cloud. Keep an eye on Inside Connections to learn more about this project as it proceeds.