DENVER — When it comes to writing laws, words matter.
The word "and" changes how a law is interpreted versus the word "or."
Using the word "may" gives flexibility, while the word “shall" makes something mandatory.
Those are the simple words.
A new bill that could limit government transparency uses a word that's anything but simple.
“One of our stakeholders brought this to us and said, ‘you know, in other states, they actually have something called a vexatious requester,’” State Rep. Cathy Kipp, D-Fort Collins, said.
“Vexatious” is the word.
Kipp’s bill, HB24-1296, could limit government transparency in several ways. One of them is delaying the release of public documents to someone deemed a “vexatious requester.”
“Vexatiousness, which may include the number of requests filed… the total number of pending requests… the scope of the requests,” Kipp said.
The bill would allow a public records custodian to deem someone “vexatious” and delay the response of public records requested under the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) from the normal three business days to 30 days.
“A ‘vexatious requester’ means a person or entity that submits a request for public records… demonstrates an intent to annoy or harass a custodian,” Kipp said.
So why not use a term from the dictionary definition instead of the word “vexatious?”
“Oh, the dictionary definition. Vexatious is causing or tending to cause annoyance, frustration or worry,” Kipp said.
Why not just say “annoying?”
“When it becomes very burdensome to our local agencies. When they’re done to intentionally harass,” Kipp said. “To me, it doesn’t really matter if it’s just generally annoying. I’ve received annoying CORA requests. I’ve fulfilled them because people have a right to public information.”
The legislative definition of “vexatious” does not include news media, like reporters.
“I agree that government records should be open and transparent. We don’t want to limit open and transparent,” Kipp said. “If we want to use a different term, whatever. I don’t really care about the term as much as I care about getting to the result where we are putting this really heavy burden on a lot of local and governmental agencies, which is keeping them from doing the work that people expect them to be doing.”
The bill has its first hearing on March 4.
More reporting by Marshall Zelinger:
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Full Episodes of Next with Kyle Clark