November 21, 1996

1. Purpose.
1. To ensure that use of electronic mail and associated equipment is consistent with the Colorado General Assembly's legal responsibility and business interests.
2. To encourage responsible, efficient use of electronic mail as a method of business communication amongst users of the Legislative Computer Network.
3. To make users of the Legislative Computer Network aware of their rights and responsibilities as regards the use of electronic mail.
4. To make elected officials aware of their rights and responsibilities as regards their use of electronic mail, even though those elected officials may not be users of the Legislative Computer Network.
2. Scope.
1. All electronic mail communications and associated attachments transmitted from, received by, or stored on any equipment owned by the Colorado General Assembly shall be considered the property of the Colorado General Assembly, and as such, is subject to the provisions of this policy. This policy applies to electronic mail transmitted through a local, regional, or global computer network (Internet).
2. Pursuant to Part 2 of Article 27 of Title 24, Colorado Revised Statutes, electronic mail that is written in the conduct of public business by legislative staff or elected officials could be considered a public record. This could be true, regardless of whether the communication was sent or received on a public or privately owned personal computer. Therefore, any electronic mail that is written in the conduct of public business by legislative staff or elected officials could be subject to the provisions of this policy.
3. Pursuant to section 24-6-402, Colorado Revised Statutes, if elected officials use electronic mail to discuss pending legislation or other public business among themselves, that communication may be considered a public meeting, and, as such may be subject to the provisions of that section.
3. General Provisions.
1. Correspondence of legislative staff and legislative members in the form of electronic mail may be a public record under the public records law and may be subject to public inspection under Section 24-72-203, Colorado Revised Statutes.
2. Under no circumstances shall equipment, supplies, or other similar items, including electronic mail, which is the property of the Colorado General Assembly, be used for private business purposes, for political purposes of a partisan nature, for campaign purposes, or for personal gain of a legislative member or staff of the General Assembly.
3. The Legislative Computer Network and its accompanying electronic mail facilities are intended for official use by authorized employees of the included Legislative Agencies for the sole purpose of conducting the business of the State of Colorado.
4. Electronic mail messages of a personal nature, not related to the business of the State of Colorado are strongly discouraged and must be kept to a strict minimum.
5. The daily tape backup system is intended for use only in cases of disaster recovery. This backup system cannot be relied upon as a means of compliance with the open records law.
4. Specific Provisions.
1. Statutory Compliance.
1. All users of the Legislative Computer Network shall abide by their agency's guidelines and operating procedures for dealing with electronic mail correspondence that is a public record, as established by Part 2 of Article 27 of Title 24, Colorado Revised Statutes.
2. Legislative members using electronic mail communications are advised to abide by the provisions of the Open Meetings provisions of Part 4 of Article 6 of Title 24, Colorado Revised Statutes.
2. Acceptable Content. Users will be held to the same standards of professionalism, good taste, and judgement when utilizing electronic mail as with any other business communication.
3. Privacy Rights.
1. Users of the Legislative Computer Network using electronic mail communications for public business should not expect the Colorado General Assembly, its designated representatives, or agency management to obtain their consent before accessing or disclosing the contents of such communications which might normally be considered under that user's control, except that the designated official custodian will consult with elected officials prior to allowing inspection of correspondence sent by or received by that elected official for the purpose of determining if it is a public record, pursuant to section 24-72-203 (2)(b), Colorado Revised Statutes.
2. Authorized network administrators and agency management, from time to time and without prior notice, may monitor the use of electronic mail. Such monitoring may include tracking addresses of mail sent and received, accessing inbox messages, accessing messages in folders, and accessing archived messages.
3. Authorized network administrators, agency management, and the public (where appropriate) may access any electronic mail message in compliance with a request for access to public records.
4. The Colorado General Assembly, through its designated representatives or agency management, reserves the right to discipline or terminate employees based on information obtained from monitoring or inspection of electronic mail communications where such information is grounds for such action.
5. The Colorado General Assembly, through its designated representatives or agency management, reserves the right to disclose electronic mail communications sent to, received by, or relating to an employee to law enforcement officials, without the consent of the employee and without giving prior notice to the employee where such action is deemed appropriate.
6. The Colorado General Assembly, its designated representatives, and agency management will make every effort to refrain from inspection of messages it determines are of a personal and private nature, where such determination can be made without actually inspecting the message. It is stressed however, that no user should expect any degree of confidentiality as regards any electronic mail message.
7. The Colorado General Assembly, its designated representatives, and agency management will make every attempt, where possible, to respect an objection to disclosure from the sender of an electronic mail message based on a claim that disclosure will result in personal embarrassment.
8. The Colorado General Assembly, its designated representatives, and agency management will make every attempt, where possible, to respect an objection to disclosure from the sender of an electronic mail message based on a claim that the disclosure would result in an invasion of a privacy right.
1. When there are overriding management concerns regarding office policy, compliance with the public records law, compliance with requests from law enforcement officials, or other purposeful disclosure, individual privacy rights may not exist and the provisions of paragraphs 6, 7, and 8, of this subsection C, may not apply.
4. Confidentiality. No guarantee of confidentiality of electronic mail communications can be made. If you need to send confidential information, the use of another media is recommended.
5. Forwarding Messages.
1. Users should be aware that they have no control over what the recipient of a message does with that message once it is in their possession. The intentional or accidental forwarding of a communication is always a possibility. When writing an electronic mail communication, this possibility should always be kept in mind.
2. If you choose to forward to a third party an electronic mail message originally addressed to you, either forward the message unchanged or distinctly identify any modifications you have made. It is also recommended that you always retain forwarding information so the original author of a forwarded message can be easily identified.
6. Maintenance. The effective use of electronic mail and the efficiency of network resources as a whole is dependent upon the good maintenance of the system. Users are responsible for such maintenance as regards their personal electronic mail environment. The following maintenance guidelines should be followed at all times.
1. Where possible, read your incoming electronic mail communications daily.
2. Where a response is appropriate, answer electronic mail communications promptly. The most significant benefit of electronic mail is that it is fast. If you ignore or delay a response, you are diminishing the efficiency of the system.
3. Keep your electronic mail environment organized.
1. All files, including electronic mail, require system storage resources. Following your agency's guidelines and operating procedures for dealing with electronic mail correspondence that is a public record, delete messages once answered or resolved.
2. Develop an orderly filing system for messages you need to save. Utilizing folders and archives within the mail system is a very effective method of organizing your communications.
4. This policy does not prohibit messages of a social nature directly related to office functions and which do not contain otherwise prohibited content. However, such messages should be communicated via the CC:Mail "bulletin boards". The user posting a bulletin board message is expected to delete the message from the system in a timely manner.
1. These are some examples of such messages which are acceptable:
1. Office function announcements.
2. Birth, bereavement, and engagement announcements.
3. Lost and found.
2. These are some examples of messages which would NOT be considered acceptable:
1. Garage Sale announcements.
2. Sporting pools.
3. Ticket/merchandise sales.
5. Use the network-wide mailing list sparingly. Use of these lists contributes greatly to network traffic and should be avoided unless necessary.

November 4, 1996