editor colorado
Official publication of the Colorado Press Association / coloradopressassociation.com / Vol. LXXXVI, No. 4
WE
want to MAKE the
CONVENTION
HELP BETTER and we need your
New survey seeks feedback on major changes to convention, annual contest Staff report
Are there too many categories in the awards contest? Should the annual convention occur at a different time of year? How do you feel about moving the convention to other cities in Colorado? These are some questions two Colorado Press Association committees have been pondering, and they would like your input. The CPA’s Convention and Education Committee and the Contest Committee are partnering on a nine-question online survey focused on possible changes to the annual convention and contest. Go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ CPAChanges to take the survey, which will be up until March 30.
Time and place
Should the annual convention be held on a different date and/or in another city? The CPA is under contract with the Westin Hotel in Downtown Denver — where the convention has been held in recent years — through 2017. It would be cost prohibitive to break the contract prior to then. “However, we may be able to change the date
of the convention at the Westin sooner,” said Jerry Raehal, CEO of the CPA. Changing the date has come up several times, notably due to February weather. “It’s a not-so-funny joke that you can tell when a major snow storm is coming because the CPA convention is upon us,” Raehal said. “Changing the timeframe could make it safer for people to travel to our keynote event.” One reason the convention has been held in Denver in February was to have contact with legislators during the Legislative session. If the convention date is changed, there are plans to try to schedule a different event during the legislative session to ensure contact remains with legislators. “Even if we cannot change the dates or the location of the convention for 2016, the time to start planning on such changes would be now, to give time to get bids and make plans for 2018,” Raehal said. “Or, if the membership wants to stay in Denver, we can focus our efforts on other planning options.”
Too many awards?
When looking at the 2014 Better Newspaper Contest, the contest committee was presented
On the web
To take the nine-question survey, go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CPAChanges. The survey will be up until March 30.
with several concerns. For example, there were 99 categories that did not register an entry. Another 172 people who submitted an entry received an award simply by entering due to a lack of competition in some categories. And because so many awards were handed out, the awards ceremony took nearly three hours. Some members have complained that so many awards dilutes the honors’ value. And while a recent survey about the convention and contest said the majority of people thought the Awards Ceremony was “good” or “great,” even those who ranked the ceremony high stated the contest had too many awards
See SURVEY, Page 12
Photos by Thomas Cooper, Lightboximages.com
Get the 411 on Tom Bredehoft, publisher, The Flagler News. PAGE 3
April 2015
Judicial records a no-go? Many on state judicial branch employees would be off-limits under proposed new rules By Jeffrey A. Roberts CFOIC Executive Director Public access to records on employees of the Colorado Judicial Branch would be substantially more limited than what’s available regarding other state government workers under proposed rules endorsed April 8 by a committee of the judiciary. Because of two state court decisions, the judicial branch isn’t covered by the Colorado Open Records Act — also known as CORA — and is setting its own regulations governing access to its administrative records. Several of the rules are in line with CORA, which covers the executive and legislative branches of government, but others deviate in significant ways. CORA, for instance, narrowly defines those portions of a state employee’s personnel file that must be kept confidential. The exemption includes only personal and private information such as home addresses, telephone numbers and financial data. All other information related to a public employee’s job performance generally is available if the public requests it. By contrast, the rules adopted by the judicial branch’s Public Access Committee make only a few employee records open for public inspection: salary, dates of employment, job title and description, the cover sheet of an evaluation and “the fact of a discipline.” Under the new rules, if a judicial branch employee is investigated for wrongdoing, any internal files providing details of that investigation would be unavailable. That isn’t the case under CORA or the Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act — also called CCJRA — the statute that dictates the public release of criminal justice records. For law enforcement officers, the Colorado Supreme Court in 2008 determined that internal affairs files can be made available for public inspection (and the CCJRA favors
See RECORDS, Page 12