The City voluntarily and proactively provides public access to most emails to and from members of City Council to any sender or recipient via Global Relay’s email database in the interest of transparency and making public business as visible as possible. The City is under no obligation to proactively provide access to these emails and access to the emails is subject to applicable law. As this is a voluntary practice, it is subject to change based on the needs of the City or direction from Council. The City will perform periodic maintenance within Global Relay without prior notice to remove folders that have been created by Public users.

To prevent the inadvertent violation of law and privacy rights, the City utilizes an automated keyword filtering system and a preliminary review to restrict the public disclosure of certain emails that would otherwise violate applicable laws and individuals’ privacy rights. Members of the public may request access to such restricted emails that do not appear publicly on Global Relay under provisions of the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA). Requests, as all others under the law’s provisions, will be evaluated to determine whether content is “privileged” or falls within any other exception to disclosure in CORA, and therefore would remain shielded. Requestors then would be provided with specific reasons for withholding the content.

Exceptions to access, under provisions of CORA, might shield some messages for reasons outlined in the state law. Examples include communication about real estate transactions, negotiations that involve attorney-client privileged communications, and certain personnel issues. Any emails containing the words "#private#", "confidential", "privilege", or "ACP" in the subject line are automatically restricted and filtered and do not appear publicly in Global Relay.

The City Attorney’s Office reviews all emails to determine access to messages in Global Relay and applies the provisions of CORA, located at C.R.S. § 24-72-201, et. seq. The following general guidelines, located in the City Attorney’s Office’s files, are used by the City Attorney’s Office to determine public access to messages in Global Relay, subject to the provisions of CORA:

• If a message is not made private by the sender, it typically remains accessible to the public.

• If a message is made private by the sender, it typically remains restricted.

• If a citizen includes personal information (such as their address or phone number) and does not make the message private, the City Attorney’s Office typically will not restrict the email.

• If personal or other private information was included in an email by a third party or a City Council member, the City Attorney’s Office will typically restrict the email.

Much of this information is located at Global Relay | City of Loveland (lovgov.org)

 (This policy is prepared and held by the City Attorney’s Office. Updated 4/29/2025)