The Colorado Public Utilities Commission will take public comment at the start of every commissioner’s weekly meeting beginning Sept. 9 as part of its new transparency mandate, the commission announced, expanding a slot previously limited to the second Wednesday of each month.

Virtual comment will be available at the 9 a.m. Wednesday meetings, the commission said in a Thursday announcement. On the second Wednesday of each month, the meeting will run in a hybrid format that also allows in-person comment.

“The Commission values public comments from residents, and by making it a weekly opportunity, we hope to hear and engage more with the public,” said Commission Chairman Eric Blank in a statement.

“In addition to virtual and in-person public comment hearings, the PUC has many ways for the public to participate by phone, voicemail, email, online or mail,” he added.

Comments offered at the weekly meetings cannot address matters currently before the commission, items on that day’s agenda, or active pending proceedings, the announcement said.

Comments on pending cases must cite the proceeding number and be filed through the commission’s online portal, emailed to dora_puc_comments@state.co.us, left by voicemail at (303) 869-3490 in English or Spanish, or mailed to 1560 Broadway, Suite 250, Denver, CO 80202.

Advance registration is encouraged through the commission’s meetings calendar, with links posted the Friday before each meeting.

Registration is not required. American Sign Language and Spanish interpreting are available with two weeks’ notice sent to Megan.Castle@state.co.us.

The new weekly slot arrives days after a separate statutory deadline.

House Bill 26-1326, the PUC sunset reauthorization signed May 29 by Gov. Jared Polis, requires decisions issued after Sept. 1 to include a summary of public comments received.

The same bill as introduced would have allowed the three commissioners to hold nonpublic discussions after the close of the record in quasi-judicial cases. Sponsors Rep. Jenny Willford, D-Northglenn, and House Majority Leader Monica Duran, D-Wheat Ridge, removed that provision April 23.

Willford said utilities, the press and environmental organizations asked that the exemption come out.

Striking it, she said, preserves “the current requirement that all commissioner deliberations occur in public and on the record.”

The Colorado Office of Policy, Research and Regulatory Reform had recommended the exception in its October 2025 sunset report, saying the Open Meetings Law “stymies brainstorming and discussion” and can slow the drafting of written decisions.

The Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, the Colorado Press Association and the Independence Institute opposed the exemption.

Sarah Montalbano, energy policy analyst at the Independence Institute, told the House Energy and Environment Committee that in a quasi-judicial body that sets monopoly utility rates, “we need transparency far more than creativity.” An after-the-fact public summary, she wrote, “is not the same as a public deliberation.”

The last official finding that commissioners failed to disclose private emails under the existing communications statute was a May 2012 State Auditor report covering 2008 through 2011.

Rules adopted afterward require disclosure of email and telephone contacts and posting of those memos. No subsequent state audit has retested compliance.

Weekly meetings are livestreamed on the commission’s YouTube channel. The three commissioners are Blank, Megan Gilman and Tom Plant.