What are they, and how do you complete one?
CORA stands for Colorado Open Records Act, and its purpose is to allow public access to records. Coloradans are entitled to have access to documents and notices that our elected and appointed government officials produce. A CORA request can be used to request correspondence between government entities and administrators, agendas and minutes from meetings, recordings from meetings, as well as other information. I will offer a sample CORA request here, but you can write your own CORA request in your own words, as well.. There are some main points to include in the request in order that you get what you are asking for, and that you do not get charged an exorbitant amount of money.
Things to remember when sending a CORA request:
- Be specific – include exact wording and exact dates you want searched
- Separate CORA requests into smaller searches to make the search simpler, and thus less time consuming. Usually, if the search takes longer than one hour, fees begin to accrue.
- Request to be notified of possible charges before they exceed a certain amount (you could say $0, $15, or $50, whatever you’re comfortable with). That way you can decide if you want them to proceed with the search as is. At this point, you could alter the search and break it down into smaller searches.
- Ask for the replies be delivered electronically, to avoid possible costs.
- If the entity you are requesting information from denies your request, ask for an explanation for the denial in writing.
Sample CORA request:
English 
Spanish