there will be no records request completed for your request until the attached city of cortez form is completed.

Linda L. Smith
City Clerk
City of Cortez
www.cortezco.gov

Please see attached response:

1. Request: All external and internal documents, emails, minutes that reply to carpenter81321@protnmail.com<mailto:carpenter81321@protnmail.com> or contain the text ‘Zu Gallery’ from any staff, council or otherwise are subject to the Colorado Open Records Act.

1. Response: An initial search indicates that well over three thousand documents may be responsive to this request, which it is estimated will take at least ten hours of staff time to retrieve and review to ensure that no statutory exceptions exist preventing the release or requiring the redaction of documents. Pursuant to CORA, the first hour is free, and every hour thereafter is charged at $33.58 per hour, for an estimated minimum fee of $302.22. Please provide payment to the City Clerk’s Office of 50% of the estimated fee, or $151.11 to allow the City to begin processing your request. The City is extending the time to respond to this request due to the extenuating circumstances, including the City having to devote all or substantially all of its resources to meeting an impending deadline concerning another CORA request, and the large volume of documents.

Linda L. Smith
City Clerk
City of Cortez
www.cortezco.gov

Please find attached the follow-up information for your request dated November 15, 2023:

1. When filing this, please note which documents have already been paid for by another FOIA request, and I request that if those documents have already been screened, that they not be duplicated in cost. You reference “another FOIA request,” and I am advising you that The Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552 (FOIA) applies only to federal agencies and does not create a right of access to records held by local government agencies. The City is processing your records request pursuant to the Colorado Open Records Act, C.R.S. § 24-72-200.1, et seq. (CORA). Please note that pursuant to C.R.S. § 24-72-205(3), the City may charge a fee not in excess of the original fee charged to a previous person requesting the same or similar records. The City’s fees are set by a resolution approved by the City Council and all CORA requests are charged the same fee rate.

2. When estimating cost of per page, please use the discretion allowed by the statute to interpret the pages to be 11x17, multiple columns, and 4 point font. Since this is an electronic request, the print version should not be provided, but for purposes of cost estimation, please take into consideration that Cortez population is underprivileged, and extend the courtesy of pricing accordingly. The City’s fees are set by a resolution approved by the City Council and all CORA requests are charged the same fee rate. The City Council policy does not provide staff with discretion to charge a different fee for different requesting parties. Electronic copies of records are not charged per page or per record, but rather the fee is based upon the time it takes the staff to research and retrieve the record, which fee is standard and is determined by the City Council by resolution.

2a. The economic information for this judgment comes from the submission done by myself of Kauffman Indicators of Entrepreneurship for Montezuma County in comparison to many surrounding counties in Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado. As seen in page 8 of the enclosed and publicly presented documents August 22, 2023, Montezuma County has compensation ranking at 39.27% within the Kaufmann Entrepreneurial Jobs Indicators, meaning that the policy taken by Cortez brings it into direct conflict with the interests of the people they impact should they price these or other electronic documents at a punitive rate. Neither CORA nor the City CORA policy require the City to consider the economic circumstances of the requesting party, and the City does not consider the use to which the requesting party will make of the requested records.

2b. Because these documents are of the public interest, and the population is demonstrably disadvantaged, the policies of Cortez which require hundreds or thousands of dollars to achieve transparency could be construed poorly in civil proceedings, meaning that legal fees could ensue which would further penalize City of Cortez budgets. This is not my intent, therefore I state it up front that the best course of action would be to ensure that FOIA costs are not borne as specified. As stated previously, FOIA is not applicable to the City of Cortez. The City does not consider the use to which the requesting party will make of the requested records.

3. Staff time to review these documents should reflect the actual costs, not the maximum costs allowed by CORA law, please recalculate these costs taking into considideration both the public interest as well as eliminating from your cost estimate any documents previously screened by staff. The City CORA policy and the fees charged are specified by resolution of the City Council, and the staff does not have the discretion to deviate from the fees required in the resolution.

Linda L. Smith
City Clerk
City of Cortez
www.cortezco.gov

thank you... for your email.. we are working on estimating your requests.

Linda L. Smith
City Clerk
City of Cortez
www.cortezco.gov

work on this request continues with the City Attorney.

Linda L. Smith
City Clerk
City of Cortez
www.cortezco.gov

Mr. Jeter, in response to the request for records pursuant to the Colorado Open Records Act that the City received from you and that is listed below, the City responds as follows:

1. Request: All external and internal documents, emails, minutes that reply to carpenter81321@protnmail.com<mailto:carpenter81321@protnmail.com> or contain the text ‘Zu Gallery’ from any staff, council or otherwise are subject to the Colorado Open Records Act.

1. Response: An initial search indicates that over fourteen hundred documents may be responsive to this request, and it is estimated it will take City Staff at least nine hours of staff time to retrieve and review to ensure that no statutory exceptions exist preventing the release or requiring the redaction of documents. Pursuant to CORA, the first hour is free, and every hour thereafter is charged at $33.58 per hour, for an estimated minimum fee for eight hours of $268.64. If you still desire to have the City process this CORA request, please provide payment to the City Clerk’s Office of 50% of the estimated fee, or $134.32 to allow the City to begin processing your request. The City has extended the time to respond to this request due to the extenuating circumstances, including the City having to devote all or substantially all of its resources to meeting an impending deadline concerning another CORA request, and the large volume of documents involved.

Linda L. Smith
City Clerk
City of Cortez
www.cortezco.gov

the check for this request was received this morning and the information was forwarded to the City
Attorney's office.... for the completion of this request. have a great day

Linda L. Smith
City Clerk
City of Cortez
www.cortezco.gov

Mr. Jeter, in response to the request for records pursuant to the Colorado Open Records Act that the City received from you and that is listed below, the City responds as follows:

I. Request:

Please see the attached PDF document labeled: 24.04.10 Jeter 11a Request Text.pdf.

II. Response:

The City processed this request pursuant to the Colorado Open Records Act, C.R.S. 24-72-200.1, et seq. (“CORA”). Pursuant to CORA, there is no charge for the first hour of time spent by the City retrieving and reviewing records, and all time thereafter is charged at $33.58 per hour. This response required 10.08 hours of staff time, so minus the first hour, for which there is no charge, the total amount owed is $304.91. You paid a deposit of $134.32, so the remaining balance owed is $170.59. The total number of email records produced is 103, and the total number of attachment records produced is 45. Please provide payment to the Cortez City Clerk in the amount of $170.59, and I will send you digital copies of all of the requested records.

Linda L. Smith
City Clerk
City of Cortez
www.cortezco.gov