While disagreeing with the lack of transparency built into legislation that deals with student-athletes’ names, image and likeness, Gov. Jared Polis signed the measure into law on Friday, even as he criticized the “unfortunate trend” of bills that he said ultimately impede access to official records.

House Bill 1041 would allow a public institution of higher education or an athletic association to compensate a student-athlete for using their name, image, or likeness (NIL) in branding or marketing for the institution. 

The bill creates a new exception to the state’s open records law, blocking from public records the names of public college athletes and any other personally identifiable information when they sign an NIL deal with a college or university.

“While I support the bill and its goals, there are issues regarding transparency that were not addressed during the legislative process that I would like to see addressed in the future,” Polis said in a statement. “In particular, I have concerns about the bill’s new Colorado Open Records Act exception regarding student-athlete contracts.”

He added: “While the bill’s exception is narrowly tailored, it follows an unfortunate trend of legislative proposals that ultimately impede access to official records that are arguably within the public’s interest to view. These exceptions move transparency in the wrong direction and any other proposals that further prevent or delay public access to information will be carefully reviewed.”

Jeff Roberts, the executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, told Colorado Politics that the problem with HB 1041 is that it allows public universities to keep deals made with athletes confidential. That means a well-represented athlete will likely receive a better deal than another athlete who is less familiar with the process, he said. 

“It just seems like it gives a public university a pass on how they are even going to be scrutinized if they are misusing the system. It really gives (public universities) a little bit of freedom,” he said. 

Polis has signed several bills dealing with public records in Colorado over the last two years. Last year, he signed a measure passed by the Democratic majority to exempt the legislature from parts of the Open Meetings Law. The lawmakers took that action after a judge ruled they had violated the law.

This year, a bill that appears to be headed to the governor’s desk would extend deadlines for public records custodians to fulfill requests from three days to five days or even longer in “extenuating circumstances,” a term that is not clearly defined. This is the second attempt to pass the measure, following its failure last year.

Senate Bill 77 is expected to be heard in the House on Monday. The Senate will need to approve the changes made to it before sending it to the governor’s desk.

There has been no indication to date on whether Polis will sign the bill into law. 

Meanwhile, Democrats killed a proposal sponsored by Sen. Byron Pelton, R-Sterling, and Rep. Lori Garcia Sander, R-Eaton, that aimed to repeal the 2024 law and require state lawmakers to conduct business entirely in the open.

Marianne Goodland contributed to this report.