This author wrote previously on the status of sexual harassment investigations under the Freedom of Information Act ['FOIA']. In a case that has grabbed some notoriety; the Freedom of Information Commission ['FOIC'] has offered further guidance and reminders as to the public nature of sexual harassment complaints.
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The state Supreme Court issued a ruling Monday that restricts the amount of information police are required to release about arrests, prompting fears among advocates of open government that the public will not have access to important information about crimes.
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Read More… from Connecticut Supreme Court ruling restricts release of arrest information
A Freedom of Information complaint has been filed against Board of Education Chairwoman Susan Hoffnagle, alleging email communications from February are in violation of FOI law.
The complaint was filed by fellow school board member Ray Rabago, persons with disabilities commission chairman Art Melycher and two others. A chain of emails sent on Feb. 19 between members of the Board of Education, members of the Board of Selectmen and Town Attorney Kevin Nelligan could constitute a meeting, depending on the ruling of the Freedom of Information Commission.
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Read More… from FOI Complaint filed against education board chairman in CT
Connecticut's Freedom of Information Commission was asked Friday to reconsider how poor a prison inmate must be to obtain public documents for free.
Derrick Taylor, a 43-year-old inmate serving an 80-year sentence for a 1992 murder outside a Hartford bar, is requesting several thousand pages of documents from the state Department of Correction related to operations of Northern Correctional Institution, where he is housed. The documents include commissary contracts and details about the prison's ventilation and television systems.
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Read More… from Connecticut inmate contests $200 document fee
Once upon a time, Gov. Ella T. Grasso signed into law Connecticut’s pioneering Freedom of Information Act, which established an independent Freedom of Information Commission. This state was in the forefront of the post-Watergate movement for open government. “Secrecy in government is inherently inconsistent with a true democracy,” the General Assembly declared at the time. “The people … do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for them to know.”
But that was long ago, in 1975.
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Read More… from Editorial: Open government: Ella, Dan and John
The people's right to know is, like "the spirit of scientific inquiry," a "search for the truth," wrote Herbert Brucker in his 1949 groundbreaking book "Freedom of Information."
The highly regarded Hartford Courant editor and journalism educator has been credited with coining the phrase "freedom of information." Every state now has freedom of information statutes.
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Read More… from Op-Ed: More Government Power To Keep Truth Under Wraps
Connecticut is one of 41 states to earn a failing grade from health advocates for lacking public information about the quality of care provided by doctors.
"Consumers should be able to find out if their local primary care physician is delivering good quality care without having to go through hoops," said Francois de Brantes, executive director of the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute in Newtown, which published the report. "Connecticut has no public reporting of physician quality."
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Read More… from State gets ‘F’ for lack of public info on medical care
During the legislative session that begins Thursday, Connecticut’s General Assembly will consider whether to uphold, repeal, scale back or expand exemptions to the state’s Freedom of Information Act that the Assembly recklessly passed last June.
Let us be abundantly clear: The legislature should repeal the exemptions and restore the Freedom of Information Act to its original, best-in-the-nation form, which was passed unanimously by the legislature and signed into law by Gov. Ella T. Grasso in 1975.
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Read More… from Editorial: Connecticut should repeal law that weakens FOIA
Well, no surprise here. Now that the General Assembly has needlessly weakened the state's Freedom of Information Act, a variety of interest groups want to carve out exemptions to the law for themselves.
In a word, no. Bad idea. The public ought to be able to copy public records and attend public meetings and know what public officials are doing. Residents of Connecticut have given lawmakers no reason to weaken the FOI. The solons shouldn't have done it last year, and they shouldn't do it again.
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Read More… from ED: Lining Up To Keep More Things Secret From The Public
