What is Loveland’s Email Transparency Project? 

Since March 8, 2016, the City voluntarily and proactively provides public access to most emails to and from members of City Council to any sender or recipient in the interest of transparency and making public business as visible as possible. This service is provided through Global Relay Inc., under contract with the City, to maintain a searchable email archive for public use.

Why does the City of Loveland make councilors’ email public? 

City Council email messages, with exceptions outlined in the City’s Global Relay Policy, are public records under the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA), CRS 24-72-204. City Council members would like to be as transparent as possible in allowing constituents the ability to review emails sent by or to them. Councilors voluntarily make this public commitment since many messages relate to how City business is conducted and how City decisions are reached.

Will all City Council emails be public via the online system? 

Except for restricted messages, as outlined in the  City’s Global Relay Policy, all emails to or from City Council within the current calendar year plus the three preceding calendar years will be accessible. Restricted messages can be requested via a written CORA request submitted to the City Clerk’s Office. Access the request form  here. 

How do senders indicate their messages should be restricted?

The Global Relay system will automatically mark a message “restricted” any time the term "#private#", "confidential", "privilege", and/or "ACP" appears in an email’s subject line. Citizens and Councilors should be mindful that subject lines including terms like “private developer” or “private enterprise” might unintentionally be flagged as restricted.  Read the  City’s Global Relay Policy for more details.

If I copy or blind-copy people on an email to Councilmembers, will those recipients appear in the system? 

Yes, all email addresses on an email to or from Council will be visible in the system, even if they are in the “blind copy” (BCC) field, as the blind copy function will not be recognized by the electronic archive system.

Is data ever deleted from the system? 

Emails cannot be deleted manually from the system by City Councilors or City employees. All City Council emails will be retained in accordance with the City’s current email retention policy.

How can I access the system? 

To access the Loveland City Council email archive, send an email to emailarchive@cityofloveland.org.

You will receive an automatic reply with the current username, password, and instructions, and a search window will open on the page. To view all City Council email messages, scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Search Message Archive.” A list of all stored email messages will appear.

NOTE: when selecting and opening a message, do not use the “back” button to return to the message list. Instead, look for the button with an arrow symbol labeled “Up” at the top of the page. The search window can be tailored to select date ranges or other criteria to find specific email messages.

(Global Relay FAQs Updated 10.04.2023)