2023 Colorado Revised Statutes › Title 24 - GOVERNMENT - STATE (§§ 24-1-101 — 24-116-102) › GOVERNORS OFFICE (§§ 24-37-101 — 24-38.9-101) › Article 37.5 - Office of Information Technology (§§ 24-37.5-101 — 24-37.5-905) › Part 1 - OFFICE CREATED (§§ 24-37.5-101 — 24-37.5-127) › Section 24-37.5-105 - Office - roles - responsibilities - state search interface - rules - legislative declaration - definitions

(1)
The office may receive and expend gifts, grants, donations, and bequests, specifically including state and federal money and other money available. The office may contract with the United States and any other legal entities with respect to money available through gifts, grants, donations, or bequests.
(2)
The office may designate to a specific state agency any contribution of advanced information technology, gifts, grants, donations, or bequests from private sources, including but not limited to advanced information technology companies, individuals, and foundations. The office may also determine that such contributions remain nondesignated.
(3)
The office shall:
(a)
Deliver innovation and information technology to state agencies to foster collaboration among state agencies, to empower state agencies to provide better service to residents of Colorado, and to maximize the value of taxpayer resources;
(b)
Coordinate with state agencies to provide assistance, advice, and expertise in connection with business relationships between state agencies and private sector providers of information technology resources. Such assistance shall include efforts that strengthen and create efficiencies in those business relationships.
(c)
Assist the joint technology committee as necessary to facilitate the committee's oversight of the office; and
(d)
Establish, maintain, and keep an inventory of information technology owned by or held in trust for every state agency.
(3.5)
The office shall build, or contract with a third-party vendor to build, the Colorado statewide longitudinal data system, as defined in section 24-37.5-125, that advances technology solutions and improves data connectivity and analysis concerning education and workforce readiness statewide.
(4)
Governance.
The office shall establish, maintain, and enforce information technology oversight and standards and shall support collaborative decision-making. In connection with information technology governance, the office shall:
(a)
Oversee statewide information technology strategy, rates and services, broadband, security, data, architecture, and information technology standards;
(b)
Provide assistance and guidance to state agencies in developing individual state agency information technology plans and ensure compliance with the state agency information technology plan; and
(c)
Provide project governance to all information technology projects, including:
(I)
Evaluating all information technology projects for alignment with state standards, architecture, and best practices;
(II)
Ensuring that every project is managed by an assigned project manager and ensuring that the state agency working on an information technology capital project reports to the office based on the governance standards specified in this subsection (4); and
(III)
Developing standards for project management including risk management and change management;
(d)
Develop and encourage an internet-based state government and facilitate the dissemination of information onto the internet through web and domain naming standards. In connection with developing an internet-based state government, the office shall:
(I)
Set standards for, partner in the development of, and encourage a secure, readily accessible, and equitably available digital state government and facilitate the dissemination of information onto the internet;
(II)
Collaborate with the statewide internet portal authority created in section
24-37.7-102
and other state agencies to create, maintain, and enhance the citizen experience of government; and
(III)
Ensure all applications comply with the accessibility standards specified in article
85
of this title 24.
(5)
Budget requests.
In consultation with the office of state planning and budgeting, the office shall:
(a)
Review and submit budget requests for all information technology resources to be used by state agencies; and
(b)
Direct the development of policies and procedures, in consultation with the office of state planning and budgeting, that are integrated into the state's strategic planning and budgeting processes and that state agencies shall follow in developing information technology plans and technology-related budget requests.
(6)
Technology purchasing for enterprises.
The office shall initiate the procurement of information technology resources for state agencies and enter into agreements or contracts on behalf of a state agency, multiple agencies, or the office, or be a party to procurement contracts that are initiated by state agencies. A state agency may initiate solicitations and contracts for information technology resources only with prior approval of the procurement official for the office, and must include provisions allowing the office to enforce technology and security standards or conduct due diligence or audits of the contractors. If the state agency does not receive written approval or disapproval from the procurement official for the office within thirty business days after submitting the procurement request to the office for review, the state agency may assume that it has received the prior approval of the office, as required by this subsection (6), and is authorized to initiate the procurement or solicitation process. In connection with the procurement of information technology resources, the office shall:
(a)
Ensure information technology purchases adhere to standards for data technology, architecture, and security;
(b)
Establish special requirements for vendors of information technology services to state agencies and adapt standards as necessary for individual state agencies to comply with federal law;
(c)
Oversee information technology vendors on behalf of the state and state agencies except when delegated to a state agency pursuant to section
24-37.5-105.4
; and
(d)
If the office does not have oversight of an information technology or services contract, ensure that the state agency with oversight of the contract operates pursuant to section
24-37.5-105.4
regarding the delegation of authority.
(7)
Information technology personnel.
To the extent permitted by applicable personnel laws and rules, the office shall oversee hiring, management, training, and performance of all state information technology personnel except when such duties are delegated pursuant to section
24-37.5-105.4
.
(8)
State applications.
The office shall oversee the installation, services, maintenance, and retirement of all state applications except when such duties are delegated pursuant to section
24-37.5-105.4
. In connection with such oversight, the office shall:
(a)
Develop standards for application development and maintenance, including methodology that all state agencies shall use for application development activities;
(b)
Ensure that cost-effective, efficient, and secure information and communication systems and resources are being used by state agencies to:
(I)
Reduce data, hardware, and software redundancy;
(II)
Improve system interoperability and data accessibility between agencies; and
(III)
Meet the agency's and user's business and service needs.
(9)
Infrastructure.
The office shall oversee the information technology infrastructure and hardware, including:
(a)
Service delivery, installation, maintenance, and retirement of all data center, mainframe, servers, storage and computer resources, email and collaboration, network, telecommunications, and end user support as outlined by services and policies in subsection (3)(f) of this section; and
(b)
Implementing information technology standards and specifications, characteristics, or performance requirements of infrastructure resources that increase efficiency and improve security and identify opportunities for cost savings based on such standardization.
(10)
(a)
The general assembly hereby:
(I)
Finds that:
(A)
Rules adopted by agencies affect many areas of life for Colorado citizens, including water, air, food, energy, mobility, employment, and health care;
(B)
Maintaining a vibrant business economy in the state is a goal shared by all Coloradans; and
(C)
Public participation in the rule-making process promotes fairness, acceptability, and public accountability and can help foster greater public trust;
(II)
Determines that:
(A)
Engaging the assistance of lawyers, lobbyists, and technical experts should not be required for Coloradans to access the rules that affect their lives and businesses;
(B)
The general assembly created the online transparency task force in House Bill 20-1039, enacted in 2020, to recommend online transparency improvements to the general assembly; and
(C)
The task force found that it is unnecessarily burdensome to require both agency and public users to navigate within and between independent departmental resources and reinforced that establishing a clear, centralized agency rule and rule-making resource is necessary; and
(III)
Declares that this subsection (10) is necessary to improve access to state rules for all Coloradans and to modernize and enhance the search functionality and transparency of existing web platforms, which are spread across multiple agencies, by creating a single, public-facing search interface for accessing agency rules and state rule-making that meets the minimum standards established in this subsection (10).
(b)
Standards for the search interface must include but are not limited to:
(I)
A centralized search interface for access to all agency rule-making that is highly visible on the state's main website and that uses search engine optimization to enable it to be located on the internet;
(II)
An optimized, intuitive, and full-text search engine that is continuously optimized to increase accuracy and search speed and provide robust search results for users;
(III)
An application programming interface that enables quantifiable research on state rules;
(IV)
A public comment process that directs users toward the open comment process on the respective agencies' websites when available;
(V)
An integrated, subscribable calendar of all agencies' rule-making hearings;
(VI)
A fully responsive design that is compatible with mobile and tablet devices; and
(VII)
Compliance with section
24-85-103
, the federal "Americans Disabilities Act of 1990",
42 U.S.C. sec. 12101
et seq., as amended, and section 508 of the federal "Rehabilitation Act of 1973",
29 U.S.C. sec. 794d
, as amended, to make the search interface accessible to people with disabilities.
(c)
To facilitate operation of the search interface, the secretary of state shall provide to the office information access to the code of Colorado regulations and Colorado register. To facilitate operation of the search interface, all other agencies shall provide to the office access to their databases and information sources that contain information for rule-making proceedings. The office shall develop the search interface as specified in this subsection (10). The secretary of state shall advise the office in the development of the search interface as necessary and upon request. The office shall make the search interface available for use by June 30, 2022; except that, if an unforeseen technological impediment prevents achievement of this deadline, the office shall:
(I)
Identify the impediment, identify a proposed solution, and execute necessary steps to resolve the impediment within existing appropriations;
(II)
Notify the joint technology committee of the general assembly in writing that it will not meet the deadline and include in the notice a description of the impediment, the individual tasks comprising the proposed solution, and the anticipated completion date; and
(III)
Appear before the joint technology committee at the first practicable opportunity after June 30, 2022, to discuss the implementation of the search interface.
(d)
The office may seek, accept, and expend gifts, grants, or donations from private or public sources for the purposes of this subsection (10).
(e)
As used in this subsection (10), "agency" has the meaning established in section
24-4-102 (3)
.
Amended by 2024 Ch. 238,§ 2, eff. 5/23/2024.
Amended by 2022 Ch. 481, § 1, eff. 6/8/2022.
Amended by 2021 Ch. 211, § 7, eff. 9/7/2021.
Amended by 2021 Ch. 449, § 1, eff. 7/6/2021.
Amended by 2019 Ch. 253, § 1, eff. 5/23/2019.
Amended by 2018 Ch. 395, § 3, eff. 6/6/2018.
Amended by 2018 Ch. 319, § 6, eff. 5/30/2018.
L. 99: Entire article added with relocations, p. 867, § 1, effective July 1. L. 2006: (3) amended, p. 1727, § 5, effective June 6; (4), (5), (6), and (7) added, p. 1722, § 2, effective June 6. L. 2007: (6) amended, p. 914, § 9, effective May 17. L. 2008: (3)(g), (3)(h), (3)(i), (8), and (9) added and (4), (5), (6), and (7) amended, pp. 1114, 1115, §§ 3, 4, effective May 22. L. 2010: (10) added, (SB 10 -032), ch. 336, p. 336, § 2, effective April 15; (3.5) added, (HB 10-1401), ch. 1730, p. 1730, § 2, effective June 7; (11)(b)(I), (11)(b)(II), (11)(b)(IV), (11)(b)(VI), and (11)(c)(II) amended, (HB 10-1404), ch. 2005, p. 2005, § 7, effective June 10; (11) added, (HB 10-1119), ch. 1573, p. 1573, § 9, effective August 11. L. 2011: (3)(h) and (3)(i) amended, (SB 11-062), ch. 429, p. 429, § 2, effective April 22; (3)(h) and (3)(i) amended and (3)(j) added, (SB 11-173), ch. 1517, p. 1517, § 5, effective June 10. L. 2012: (10)(a) and (10)(m) amended, (SB 12-096), ch. 59, p. 215, § 1, effective March 24; (3)(i), (3)(j), and (4)(a) amended and (3)(k), (4)(c), and (4)(d) added, (HB 12 -1288), ch. 233, p. 233, § 3, effective August 8. L. 2013: (3)(l) added and IP(3.5)(a), (3.5)(b), and IP(8) amended, (HB 13-1079), ch. 1191, p. 1191, § 3, effective May 18. L. 2014: (3)(k) and (3)(l) amended and (3)(m) added, (HB 14-1387), ch. 1843, p. 1843, § 45, effective June 6. L. 2015: (11)(b)(I), (11)(b)(II), (11)(b)(IV), (11)(b)(VI), and (11)(c)(II) amended, (SB 15-204), ch. 1029, p. 1029, § 10, effective June 2; (3)(i) and IP(8) amended, (HB 15 -1213), ch. 241, p. 241, § 2, effective August 5. L. 2018: (12), (13), and (14) added, (SB 18-086), ch. 1919, p. 1919, § 6, effective May 30; (4)(c)(VII) and (4)(c)(VIII) amended and (4)(c)(IX) and (4.5) added, (HB 18-1421), ch. 2355, p. 2355, § 3, effective June 6. L. 2019: (3)(l), (3)(m), (4)(c)(VIII), and (4)(c)(IX) amended and (3)(n) and (4)(c)(X) added, (SB 19-251), ch. 2448, p. 2448, § 1, effective May 23.
(1) Amendments to subsections (3)(h) and (3)(i) by Senate Bill 11-062 and Senate Bill 11-173 were harmonized.
(2) Subsection (3.5)(c) provided for the repeal of subsection (3.5) and subsection (10)(m) provided for the repeal of subsection (10), effective July 1, 2014. (See L. 2010, p. 1730 and L. 2012, p. 215 .)
(3) Amendments to this section by HB 21-1230 and HB 21-1236 were harmonized.
(1) For the legislative declaration in the 2010 act adding subsection (10), see section 1 of chapter 98, Session Laws of Colorado 2010. (2) In 2010, subsection (11) was added by the "State Measurement for Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent (SMART) Government Act". For the short title, see section 1 of chapter 340, Session Laws of Colorado 2010. (3) For the legislative declaration in the 2011 act amending subsections (3)(h) and (3)(i) and adding subsection (3)(j), see section 1 of chapter 310, Session Laws of Colorado 2011. (4) For the legislative declaration in HB 14-1387, see section 1 of chapter 378, Session Laws of Colorado 2014.