Electronic storage of public documents law-Colorado

[JimCity3000]

I am advocating for a paperless filing system of variance applications and site plans for the City of Colorado Springs to where we would no longer keep hardcopies of such paperwork—they’d all be scanned and stored on a server; but the concern is that this would be in violation of the law. The concen is that there is some law that requires hardcopies be kept; or, that if stored electronically, it has to be a verifable method of record storage and back up. I don't know if there any law-afficianados here; particularly with regard to Colorado; but can any IT management experts or law buffsoffer any thoughts on this? I know there is that risk that electronic storage will crash, but hardcopies are backed up with another hardcopy and they too are subject to fire, theft, misfiling . . . Thanks for any feedback. J.

[Hink]

I can't speak for Colorado, but in Ohio, we have gone to a dual system of hard copy and electronic copies, with the assumption that the hard copies are going to go away. Our legal council does not believe that we can meet our records retention policies without hard copies at this time.

I would contact your State Auditor's Office.

[Masswich]

Yep, a lot of states' laws require that hard copies of everything be filed and retained so they can get thrown away by a custodian or the movers in a few years when they no longer seem relevant. Or they get flooded on by a leaky roof.

[Plan_F]

I am advocating for a paperless filing system of variance applications and site plans for the City of Colorado Springs ... but the concern is that this would be in violation of the law. The concen is that there is some law that requires hardcopies be kept...

You could be right. Your city should have a records manager with a list of files and how long they need to be kept, and, hopefully, in what format. Many states, including mine, require zoning case files to be kept perpetually or indefinitely. If you don't have a records manager in your city, check with the municipal attorney, search the state code, or give a few calls up to the Denver area and see what they are doing. You might also check on which parts of the files must be kept (?) – usually not everything.

In Nevada, this is also true that the case files must be kept perpetually, and you may keep those sorts of files electronically. However, if you do not have the paper files, you must have a "human-readable" format, such as microfilm or microfiche. What we had done to comply in that case is to send out the files to be scanned, at which time microfilm is also created. Those were merely stored as back-ups and not used routinely. (You may think it would be hard to read a microfilm or fiche by eyeballing it, but that is how the law in that state has it.)

Back here, we have electronic copies which we scan in-house, and we have the original boxed paper copies (thinned out to the essential documents) in cold storage off site. We can recall them if needed.

A couple of things to consider with electronic storage –

1) Make sure that you can find them easily. This means through time. Several search fields or keyword-types are what I would recommend. These might include: Tax-parcel ID, PLSS brief legals (Section, Quarter-section, etc.), Name, Common name (e.g. shopping center), address and variants, expiration date; and of course type of case and disposition (as well as being able to later note a change, like see court case xyz or revocation orders, etc.)

2) Make sure you can find the part of the file you need when the file is voluminous. Nothing is more irritating and having to read thru hundreds of electronic pages in one case file, when you could have found the thing in a minute from the paper file.

3) The file format and software may matter. Most files are stored in TIFF (multi-page) or PDF formats. Some let you convert then easily to alternative formats. Be sure they can be easily viewed AND retrieved for later use.

[The One]

A quick online search shows the State of Colorado does allow for electronic notary public documents, if the notary is registered with the County. That will help in any attempt to make digital filing possible.