Wildlife Damage Protection of Personal Information

Water Resources and Agriculture Review Committee. Under current law, a person may file a claim with the division of parks and wildlife (division) for compensation for damages to property caused by wildlife, and the division must review and investigate that claim (claim procedures). The bill changes current law by requiring that the personal information of a person or site assessments received by the division through the claim procedures and personal information associated with proactive nonlethal measures is kept confidential and not disclosed pursuant to the "Colorado Open Records Act". The bill excludes from this prohibition:

• Information about nonlethal predator-livestock conflict minimization measures that does not reveal the identity of the person or the person's business;
• Nonidentifying information of county-level data highlighting the number or dollar amount of claims made to the division, the number of claims that were settled and the monetary amounts of those settlements, the number of claims that are pending at the time of a request for disclosure, and the number of claims that were denied and the reasons for denial; and
• Personal information that becomes public by the actions of the subject of the personal information or the subject's agent.

The bill prohibits bringing or maintaining a private action challenging the division's determination that a person or the person's agent has taken actions or made statements that led to the person's personal information becoming publicly known.

(Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.)

(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)