To help our members meet the new requirement in section 32-1-809, Colorado Revised Statutes, to provide an annual notice to your electors containing certain information about your district, the Special District Association created a new module on our website where special districts could post their Transparency Notice information, and wow, did you ever respond!

As of nine hours before the statutory deadline, 980 special districts had posted their Transparency Notice to the SDA website!

Members of the public can now research the special district contact information, board members, regular board meeting schedule, mill levy, and upcoming regular election information for hundreds and hundreds of special districts right from the SDA Homepage.
The impetus behind Senate Bill 09-087 which created this new law was a belief that citizens are under-informed about the special taxing jurisdictions in which they live and to which they pay taxes and that information about special districts, in particular, is buried and hard to find.

No more.

Special districts across Colorado have responded to their constituents with increased quantities of information and transparency about district operations. Some districts have posted this information on their own websites, some have printed the information in billing inserts, annual reports, newsletters, or other informational mailings sent to the electors, but clearly, many districts took advantage of the notice posting service created and offered by SDA.

Hopefully this improved level of communication from districts will help begin to educate many Colorado citizens about the important and life-enhancing services provided to them by the special district form of local government. The more informed citizens are about what your district is and what it does to augment their lives, the more ready they may be to support your efforts.

SDA already knows what a great job you are doing for so many Coloradans. Now it’s time for them to find out too.