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Public Records Request

Visit the Public Records Portal to submit a new public records request, review documents from a prior request, or search the public records archive. 

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Fees and Charges for Public Records Requests

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Public Records Policy

The City of Westminster complies with the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA). The city clerk is the official custodian of the city’s public records, receives and responds to public record requests, and is responsible for the retention of city records and preservation of archival documents.

Public records include all writings made, maintained, or kept by the city, regardless of physical form or characteristic. 

Public records are available for inspection Monday through Thursday 7:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. by appointment.  Please contact the Clerk's office and provide 24-hour notice to ensure staff availability. Written requests will be made available within three business days or less after a written Public Records Request is received. 

Extenuating circumstances may result in an extension of seven business days at the end of the initial three-day period, in which instance you will be notified in advance. In some cases, there are no records that satisfy your request. Public records maintained by the city and disclosable under the CORA will be made available upon request and receipt of any required charges. 

Submitting an Open Records Request

Most city records are public records. CORA defines what specific records are not available for inspection and you will be informed if the record you request is not available to you for that reason.

Although the majority of city documents are public records, they are not kept forever. The City Clerk’s Office is responsible for the city’s records management program. All city records are evaluated based on the length of time they will have significant value to the city and to the public, and each record type is assigned a retention period. For example:  ordinances, resolutions, and minutes are retained permanently, while cancelled checks are destroyed after seven years. The Colorado State Archives reviewed and approved the city’s retention schedule, which was adopted by the Westminster City Council in the City of Westminster Document Management and Retention Policy of 2010.

Please be specific when making your request to ensure our ability to research and retrieve the information requested. 

Asking for “everything you’ve got” can be costly to the requestor, as there are research and retrieval fees involved for record searches when the records are not readily available. 

The first hour of research and retrieval fees are provided for free. After the first hour, a minimum of $7.50 per quarter hour is charged for research and retrieval. 

The city may require and collect a 50 percent advance deposit of estimated research, retrieval and reproduction fees for any public record and open record request that will take significant staff time and resources to complete. 

A 100 percent advance deposit may be required for requests from persons who have made previous records requests and failed to submit payment. 

The city reserves the right to charge back to the requestor any other fees it has incurred in order to process the request (i.e., bank charges/postage). 

Whether or not a deposit has been requested, no records will be released until full payment of all costs associated with satisfying the request have been received by the city.