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Consumer Protection is Our Mission

Description || Objectives || Activities || Funding Sources || Trends

Office Description

DORA is dedicated to preserving the integrity of the marketplace and is committed to promoting a fair and competitive business environment in Colorado. Consumer protection is our mission.

The Office works with the Governor's Office, the General Assembly, other departments in state government, federal agencies and national associations to further their respective goals. It provides leadership, coordination, control and various management services to the divisions to ensure that the Department's mission is fulfilled and that objectives are met within the resources allocated. A major program within the Executive Director's Office is the Office of Policy and Research (OPR). OPR provides sunset and sunrise regulatory evaluations and policy recommendations to the General Assembly. In addition, OPR supplements the research function of the Executive Director's Office by providing assistance with legislative and policy issues. Without these activities, there would be no centralized coordination or accountability to the Governor, General Assembly or the public, and no coordination of initiatives or accountability within the Department. The Executive Director's Office offers a single point of contact for information regarding these areas.

Office Objectives

The Office's objectives are to provide:

	Department accountability to the Governor, the Legislature, and the citizens of Colorado.
	Sound operating principles to guide the Department in its public service mission.
	Management of the Department.
	Information and recommendations to the Governor, the Legislature, and the citizens of Colorado.

Activities

The Office's objectives are met through the following activities:

	Providing leadership, centralized planning and accountability for the offices and divisions.
	Communicating information and providing reports to the Governor, the General Assembly, the public and department personnel regarding DORA divisions, including programs undergoing statutorily required sunset and sunrise review.
	Providing a central resource for introduction and coordinated implementation of legislative and executive branch initiatives.
	Serving on the Governor's cabinet.

The Executive Director's Office (EDO) is responsible for the overall management of the Department and its divisions, for ensuring that the Department runs smoothly and in accordance with applicable state policies and rules, and further ensuring that the various boards and programs have the resources necessary to accomplish their tasks. EDO responsibilities are related both to policy and administration. EDO is the principal advisor to the Governor and the Legislature on policy issues involving DORA, most typically relating to the role of the state in regulating professions and occupations in the interest of public protection.

The Department seeks to balance two important but often conflicting needs: The public's right to consistent, high quality professional and occupational services, and the rights of businesses to exist and thrive in a highly competitive market, free from unfair, costly or unnecessary regulation.

Acting in conjunction with its primarily policy-autonomous boards and commissions, whose members volunteer thousands of hours of time, the Department carries out its mandate in several ways:

	It establishes standards of education, training and competency, which must be met by those that seek entry to its regulated professions and occupations.
	It establishes the standards by which those professions or occupations are to be practiced.
	It offers a process for investigating and redressing the injuries suffered by citizens who have, in one way or another, been harmed by negligent or unscrupulous practitioners.
	Finally, it provides a mechanism by which regulated individuals and institutions can be sanctioned or even stripped of the credentials allowing them to practice if, following appropriate due process, such action is warranted by the licensee's wrongful conduct.

To achieve its goals, the Department relies on six primary activities:

	Regulation - Licensing/certifying/registering (includes exams for licensure), renewing, issuing authority to operate or do business, permitting, approving applications and chartering (as well as other "approvals" such as mergers).
	Enforcement - Performing investigations and where sufficient cause exists, disciplining licensed or registered persons or organizations, within the bounds of administrative due process. Performing inspections; safety and soundness exams; audits; financial, compliance, engineering and economic analyses; and requiring actions to remedy inappropriate conditions.
	Standards - Establishing standards, quality of service, rates and tariffs. These relate, primarily, to meeting objectives in the PUC.
	Administering direct service programs such as the Colorado High Cost Fund, the Disabled Telephone Users Fund, and the Low Income Telephone Assistance Fund.
	Communicating - Providing a wide variety of information to legislators, the Governor, individual licensees and their employers, business associations, consumers, and the general public.
	Providing operational support such as personnel and payroll activities, budgeting and accounting activities and information technology support, as well as planning and management activities.

Funding Sources

The following table displays the amount of revenue generated and the amount of expenditures for the Executive Director's Office:

	Revenue	Expenditures
FY 09-10 Actual	$6,004,822	$5,457,827
FY 10-11 Actual	$4,347,631	$3,538,831
FY 11-12 Estimate	$4,293,979	$3,388,050

The following table shows the source of the estimated revenue for Fiscal Year 2011-2012:

The following table shows the estimated expenditures for Fiscal Year 11-12:.

Amounts do not include Colorado Uninsurable Health Insurance Plan (CoverColorado).

Trends

Impact of Population Growth

Over the last few years, Colorado's growing population has affected DORA in a number of predictable ways. More individuals than ever before are applying for professional and occupational licenses. In addition, more complaints are being filed by consumers against licensed or registered individuals or entities, so more resources must be devoted to investigating those complaints, enforcing the state's laws and regulations and, where appropriate, disciplining the offending licensee.

Impact of Economic Growth

Colorado's "boom" economy has had an impact on regulation. As with population growth, economic growth encourages and supports the development and growth of the professions and businesses that we regulate. For example, the number of securities brokerage firms licensed to do business in Colorado increased 42% in only seven years (from 1,534 in 1991 to 2,172 in 1998), and the number of individual stock brokers licensed to do business here nearly doubled, up 92% in that same period of time (from 52,719 in 1991 to 101,202 in 1998). While one might assume that economic growth would lessen the need for regulatory oversight in certain professions, (e.g., financial institutions may be less likely to face insolvency) that same growth and vitality can lead to increased problems in other professions (e.g., unscrupulous or unlicensed securities brokers may try to relieve citizens of their increased income through the promotion of unlawful "scams"). Even in professions that benefit from economic growth , like banks and savings and loans, the role of regulators remains critical to the interests of the public. Regulators still must examine the institutions to ensure that they are being operated in a sound way. For example, unwise loans that were made by institutions during the economic growth of the late '70's and early '80's contributed to the financial disaster that was the Savings and Loan crisis. Regulators must constantly be vigilant of situations that could lead to harm to the public, whether in good times or bad.

Planning for Change

Periodically, changes in both state and federal legislation affect DORA's regulatory policies and processes. For example, health care reform measures in Congress have necessitated annual changes both in Colorado law and in regulations issued by the Insurance Commissioner. In addition, profound changes in industries, such as the merging of both regulated and unregulated telecommunications entities, have had a major impact on the Public Utilities Commission. The General Assembly has determined that public utilities should operate in a competitive rather than a monopoly environment. However, the trend towards increased competition does not mean that less regulatory oversight is necessary. Frequently, the opposite is true. This sort of policy change poses significant challenges to the regulatory institutions, requires significant training of both the regulators and the regulated, and often requires significant new resources.

The Department must ensure that divisions have the resources and support needed to address change efficiently and effectively. This is done through traditional strategic planning in some agencies, and through specific change projects in other instances. The challenge of dealing with change - the transition process - sometimes seems overwhelming as we live with the current environment while identifying and planning to deal with what the future will bring.

Information Technology Development

The fastest growing function of the Department is the provision of information. The Department's ability to provide the necessary information to its broad range of customers is made possible largely through advances in the field of information technology. As with other departments in state government, acquiring up-to-date technology and training staff in the use of that technology is seen as a major customer service priority. Our customers have constantly increasing expectations with respect to the accessibility of information and services, with speed of service delivery being a critical issue. They expect that we will be able to provide the type of services, speed and quality that they would get from a private company, and we believe such expectations are fair and reasonable. Our goal is to make all DORA public information and services instantly accessible online and in an easily understood format. Although we realize that it will be several years before we reach this goal, we have already made substantial progress and many citizens now obtain the information they need about the people and institutions we license and regulate, our programs, our budget, and our processes directly from the Internet.

Importance of Customer Service

The most basic tenet of our mission statement is public service. This involves periodically reviewing not only what we do, to make sure it still meets a public need, but also how we do it. Providing quality customer service means ensuring that each individual customer is helped in a respectful and responsive manner. DORA agencies have many diverse customers, often with conflicting interests and expectations. We encourage our customers to contact us and let us know whether we are meeting their service expectations.

Budgeting/Funding

DORA is, and will continue to be, affected by the TABOR amendment. Sweeping industry consolidations or expansions change the regulatory environment, eliminating the need for some programs but creating the need for others. Particularly as information technology possibilities expand, customer needs and expectations also evolve. At the same time, citizens resist the notion of bigger government, demanding instead more efficient government. We recognize the need to focus on reallocating existing resources to meet changing regulatory demands and customer needs whenever possible and we accept the responsibility to manage within existing resources.