Hearing Officer Appointment Logs

Samuel Newton filed this request with the Department Of Labor & Employment of Colorado.
Tracking #

170009-08043250

Status
Completed

From: Samuel Newton

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Colorado Open Records Act, I hereby request the following records:

I am writing to request information regarding the scheduling of hearing officers for appeal hearings related to unemployment claims under the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA), C.R.S. 24-72-201 et seq. Specifically, I am seeking detailed logs and records for the past 12 months pertaining to:

The schedules of hearing officers assigned to appeal hearings for unemployment claims.
The number of appeals scheduled, rescheduled, and heard by each hearing officer.
The criteria and process used to assign hearing officers to specific cases.
Any records or logs indicating the number of appeals pending assignment to a hearing officer.
The average time from appeal filing to hearing date assignment.

Additionally, if any of the requested records are not readily available, I request that those records be processed and sent separately as soon as they become available.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 3 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Samuel Newton

From: Department Of Labor & Employment

Hello,

Your request has been received. We have conducted a level of effort to complete this request, and we estimate this will take 3 total hours to complete. As is allowable under CORA, when producing records consumes more than one hour of staff time, we charge $30 an hour for all staff time associated with locating and producing records (up to $41.37 if the work requires specialized document production or third-party contractors.) As such, we estimate the fees associated to fulfill this request to be roughly $90.

We will wait to fulfill the request until we get your agreement to pay the charges. A final invoice payable by check will be sent to you once the work is completed. Please let us know how you would like to proceed.

From: Department Of Labor & Employment

Hello,

Your request has been received. We have conducted a level of effort to
complete this request, and we estimate this will take 3 total hours to
complete. As is allowable under CORA, when producing records consumes more
than one hour of staff time, we charge $30 an hour for all staff time
associated with locating and producing records (up to $41.37 if the work
requires specialized document production or third-party contractors.) As
such, we estimate the fees associated to fulfill this request to be roughly
$90.

We will wait to fulfill the request until we get your agreement to pay the
charges. A final invoice payable by check will be sent to you once the work
is completed. Please let us know how you would like to proceed.

Office of Government, Policy & Public Relations

We Keep Colorado Working.

633 17th St, Suite 1200, Denver, CO 80202

cdle_pr@state.co.us | www.colorado.gov/cdle

From: Samuel Newton

Please proceed with the request.

From: Department Of Labor & Employment

We have received your confirmation and will proceed with fulfilling this request. We anticipate having this completed by early next week.

From: Department Of Labor & Employment

We have received your confirmation and will proceed with fulfilling this
request. We anticipate having this completed by early next week.

Office of Government, Policy & Public Relations

We Keep Colorado Working.

633 17th St, Suite 1200, Denver, CO 80202

cdle_pr@state.co.us | www.colorado.gov/cdle

From: Department Of Labor & Employment

Your request submitted on July 23, 2024 is now complete. As we indicated previously, the effort to compile the records has taken three hours of staff time to complete, and we charge $30 an hour after the first hour for staff time associated with the work. One hour of staff time is allowed under CORA, so there is a charge of $60 for those two additional hours. An invoice is attached to this response. Please pay the charges via check as indicated on the invoice.

The attached documents are responsive to your request. Please start with the file titled “CDLE_UI Appeals Scheduling Responses 7_30_24.docx”

From: Department Of Labor & Employment

Your request submitted on July 23, 2024 is now complete. As we indicated
previously, the effort to compile the records has taken three hours of
staff time to complete, and we charge $30 an hour after the first hour for
staff time associated with the work. One hour of staff time is allowed
under CORA, so there is a charge of $60 for those two additional hours. An
invoice is attached to this response. Please pay the charges via check as
indicated on the invoice.

The attached documents are responsive to your request. Please start with
the file titled “CDLE_UI Appeals Scheduling Responses 7_30_24.docx”

Office of Government, Policy & Public Relations

We Keep Colorado Working.

633 17th St, Suite 1200, Denver, CO 80202

cdle_pr@state.co.us | www.colorado.gov/cdle

From: Samuel Newton

I am writing to request access to all correspondence generated from or in relation to my prior records requests submitted to your office. This includes internal communications, responses, and any other related documentation.

Additionally, I kindly request a brief description of the search conducted to locate these records, including the departments or databases searched.

Please confirm receipt of this request and provide an estimated time frame for fulfilling it. Should there be any associated fees, please inform me in advance.

From: Department Of Labor & Employment

It appears that the number group 170009-08043250 is a unique identifier.
Did all your requests utilize the same identifier? If not can you provide
those identifiers as otherwise a search for the relevant documents may take
some time.

Office of Government, Policy & Public Relations

We Keep Colorado Working.

633 17th St, Suite 1200, Denver, CO 80202

cdle_pr@state.co.us | www.colorado.gov/cdle

From: Department Of Labor & Employment

Your follow up request will require two additional hours of staff time. At $30/hour after the first initial hour, fulfilling your request this part of your request will cost $30. Please let us know how you would like to proceed.

From: Department Of Labor & Employment

We have completed your request. No additional cost is needed. Please see the summary requested and the attached documents:

We have only one communication about this request within Appeals, generated when the Hearings Unit Manager created a shared Google Drive folder for response data and one generated by the records custodian when asking for the responsive documents and the level of effort involved in the initial request. Both are attached here.

We conducted all responsive record searches to initial request numbers 2, 4, and 5 within the proprietary Salesforce application built specifically for CDLE UI Appeals, known as CARDS. This is our appeal docket management database that tracks and aggregates extensive data about each docket including appeal date, date scheduled, date postponed, hearing date, and hearing officer’s name. We built the provided reports by querying CARDS for the specific data requested and downloading the results.

Likewise, hearing officer availability is entered into CARDS by weekday and time, and we cross-checked each day of a standard week to provide the overall number of available hearing slots per hour in the response to initial request number 1.

No such record or document exists within the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment for items 1 and 3, and there is no database from which that data can be pulled.
No. 01-1, 2001 WL 862582, at *3 (Colo. A.G. July 5, 2001): “The Open Records Act only makes public written information that already exists within the government. It does not force an agency or other government organization involved to create new records to respond to a request. It also does not require the government to manipulate or analyze information it might have in a new way in order to respond to a request.”

  • State.co.us_Executive_Branch_Mail_-_CDLE_Media_CORA_7..._-_phil.spesshardtstate.co.us_zachary.pdf

  • State.co.us_Executive_Branch_Mail_-_Folder_shared_with_you___CORA_Media_Request_.pdf