2012 marks the third year that Title 32, article 1 special districts (see chart below) have been statutorily¹ required to give annual notice to the public of certain basic information about the district: business address, phone number, primary contact person, time, date and location of regular board meetings, board member names, mill levy and property tax revenues, date of next regular election and the self-nomination procedure, etc.

Nicknamed the “Transparency Notice,” this notice may be disseminated out to the public in a variety of ways, but most special districts either post it on the district’s website or post it on the SDA website.

Before reading any further, confirm that your district is legally required to comply with the annual transparency notice, as follows:

SDA Website
If you plan to post the district’s transparency notice on the SDA website, there are a few simple rules that will make the process run more smoothly.
First, the district must be a current member of SDA in order to post its transparency notice on the SDA website.

View what’s posted
You should determine whether the district already has a previous transparency notice posted on the SDA website. If so, you’ll want to be sure to access and then write over the existing notice when you make updates. Otherwise, you’ll just create multiple notice postings for the district, which can create confusion, rather than transparency.

If you’re not sure what, if anything, the district currently has posted on the SDA website, click on “Special District Transparency Information” on the right side of the Resources page at www.sdaco.org/Resources. Search for the district by name. You can open the existing notice in read-only mode by clicking on the district’s name.

We have seen several instances where multiple notices are posted on behalf of a district by different people who are unaware that someone else has also posted a notice. For example, one district had three notices: one posted by a board member, one by the district manager, and one by the district’s law firm or accounting/management firm. You can avoid this duplication of efforts by first looking to see if there is already a notice posted on behalf of the district, by whom, and the date.
 

SDA Member Login
Any visitor to the SDA website may view posted transparency notices, but in order to create or modify a notice, you will need to complete the SDA Member Login on the SDA homepage (www.sdaco.org). If you do not have an SDA Login, begin with “Create new account.”

Instructions to Create and Post a New Transparency Notice:

1. Following a successful member login, click on “SENATE BILL 09-87 Compliance” on the right side of the Members page.
2. On the next page, select “To create and post a new district Transparency Notice or to edit or update a previously posted Transparency Notice click here.” on the left side of the screen.
3. The white “Special District Transparency Information” page presents three options: Update, Add and Search.
4. Select “Add” in the center and fill in the fields with your first and last name, then decide on a Username and Password for the transparency notice. We recommend that you select something that is different than your SDA Member Login—something generic that you could share with co-workers or others who may need to update the transparency notice in your absence. Please keep a record of the district’s transparency notice login information. You will need it next year (if not sooner) in order to modify and update the information contained in the notice you are creating.
5. If you will be creating a new transparency notice for more than one district, you must create a separate and unique login for each district and notice. In particular, the Username must be unique and cannot have been previously “claimed” by another district using the SDA transparency notice posting site. You may, however, repeat using the same password. For example, you must register a separate login for usernames “XYZMetro1” and “XYZMetro2”, but the password can be “Notice” for both. Usernames and passwords are case-sensitive.
6. Click “Submit” and a blank notice form will open.
7. Complete the required fields in the transparency notice. We recommend gathering the required information (contact person info, board member names, mill levy, etc.) before creating the notice, so that you can fill in all the fields in one sitting. If you get interrupted or have to go look up some of the required information, save the information entered in the notice by clicking “Submit” at the bottom of the notice form, and then when you return with the additional necessary information, you should access the notice as described below to modify an existing notice.
8. After completing the data entry, hit “Submit” at the bottom of the notice form. A blank white screen will appear; do not panic, your information has been saved.
9. Next, select your browser’s back arrow button. You will be returned to a blank notice form, and then click on the blue “Logout” at the bottom of the form.
10. To review/confirm the results of your data entry, view the district’s transparency notice on the SDA Resources page, as described above under “View What’s Posted.”

Instructions to Modify and Write Over an Existing Transparency Notice:

1. Following a successful member login, click on “SENATE BILL 09-87 Compliance” on the right side of the Members page.
2. On the next page, select “To create and post a new district Transparency Notice or to edit or update a previously posted Transparency Notice click here.” on the left side of the screen.
3. The white “Special District Transparency Information” page presents three options: Update, Add and Search.
4. Choose “Update” (left) to update a transparency notice that is already posted on SDA’s website.
5. In order to access and update a previously posted notice, you must “unlock” the notice using the same Username and Password that was selected when the notice was initially created. Each transparency notice has a unique username/password combination, even if multiple notices for multiple districts were created by the same person.     
   1. If you will be updating transparency notices for multiple districts, you can complete your SDA login once, but you must login and logout separately for each and every transparency notice that you wish to update.
   2. If you need to update a transparency notice which you did not create and therefore you do not know the original username and password login combination, contact SDA at 303-863-1733 for assistance.
   3. If you need to update a transparency notice but you have forgotten the transparency notice login, contact SDA at 303-863-1733 for assistance.
6. Following a successful transparency notice login, click on the “Edit” icon (paper and pencil).
7. Enter updated data into the appropriate fields.
8. Click on “Save” at the bottom of the notice form.
9. You will then skip to the white Special District Transparency Notice Information Page with an update confirmation message.
10. Click on the blue “Logout” at the bottom of the screen.

District Website
If you wish to post the SDA transparency notice on the district’s website, you can print and post a copy of the completed SDA form by clicking on the Print Page icon at the top of the read-only format of the notice as viewable from the SDA website Resources page (see discussion above).

If you choose to post your notice on the district’s official web site, the district’s website must be “linked” to the website of the Division of Local Government (“DLG”). If you haven’t already done so, this linkage can be accomplished by providing your district’s website address to the DLG on the Division’s Local Government Contact Information/Website Update Form available at http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/DOLA-Main/CBON/1251594654252.

Other Methods to Distribute Notice
Besides the website postings discussed above, the statute provides that the annual transparency notice to electors may be disseminated in one or more of the following ways:

1. Mailing the notice to each household where one or more eligible district electors reside;
2. Including the notice as a prominent part of a
   1. newsletter,
   2. annual report,
   3. billing insert,
   4. billing statement,
   5. letter,
   6. voter information card or other election notice, or
   7. other informational mailing sent by the district to the eligible electors.
3. Physically posting the transparency notice as provided in the statute, but only if the special district has less than 1,000 eligible electors and the district is wholly located in a county with a population less than 30,000.

If you plan to use one of these other distribution methods, you may draft up your own transparency notice as long as it contains all the information required by  section 32-1-809(1)(a-i), C.R.S., or, SDA has prepared a statutorily-sufficient transparency notice template that you may download from the SDA website “Resources” page.

Inactive district exemption
Special districts which have legally claimed “inactive” status pursuant to section 32-1-104, C.R.S., are exempt from complying with the transparency notice provisions in section 32-1-809, C.R.S.

End Notes

1   See section 32-1-809, C.R.S.
2   See §32-1-809(2)(e), C.R.S.