Sunshine Week Illuminates Newtown’s Conformity To FOI Statutes

By John Voket

As Sunshine Week draws to a close in Newtown and across the country, the community’s head information officer, Town Clerk Debbie Aurelia, believes her office is fully conforming to even the latest stipulations of Connecticut’s Freedom of Information statutes.

She also praised elected officials and The Newtown Bee for going far beyond the statute’s call by providing audio and, in some cases, video transcripts of key town meetings.

“How can anyone say Newtown isn’t doing everything it can to make government transparent?” Ms Aurelia said Thursday morning.

Following recent amendments to state FOI law, the town clerk said her office is extremely responsive in getting every item required under the law in front of the public via the town’s website, newtown-ct.gov.

“We have everything up there in accordance with the statute, generally the same day it comes in, and sometimes within a few minutes of receiving it from the various reporting boards and commissions,” she added.

Ms Aurelia said that the town’s website goes far beyond the requirements, and that the local newspaper has provided a valuable partnership by broadcasting full audio and video transcripts of certain important meetings via the web, where it is available for virtually anyone to access at no charge.

“I think we are expanding the use of the web and the town website all the time to get information and details out to the public,” Ms Aurelia said. “I don’t know of any [small] town website that provides so much voluntary detail to help residents understand government activities.”

The requirement to provide such comprehensive detail has not been so well received across the state, however.

When it was approved last year, a law requiring Connecticut municipalities to quickly post their meeting minutes online was hailed by supporters as significantly boosting public access to information.

In the five months since it went into effect, however, several small towns have suspended their websites instead and others are considering it, all saying they lack the technology or money to comply with the new posting rules.

Compromises Considered

Now, several compromises are being considered at the General Assembly to balance the law’s original intent with the towns’ concerns about being fined for violating the state Freedom of Information Act.

“Some of the towns aren’t used to posting things regularly, so we do recognize this could be a new challenge,” said state Representative James Spallone, D-Essex. “Maybe with a little time to figure out how to do it, the towns may find that it’s easier than they initially thought it would be.”

The law, which went into effect last October 1, requires municipalities to post agendas on their websites at least 24 hours before all public meetings and their minutes within a week afterward.

Several town leaders, especially in small communities, complained to their legislators that they rely on part-time or volunteer webmasters. Others said complying with the law would mean paying more to contractors for the extra work, equating to an unfunded state mandate.

Failure to comply could result in complaints to the state Freedom of Information Commission. At least nine towns have suspended their websites since October rather than risk facing an FOI complaint for violating the new rules.

The legislature’s committee on government administration and elections, which Rep Spallone co-chairs, recently endorsed a bill intended to offer some middle ground.

Rep Spallone said it would let towns grant themselves a waiver in the first year without explanation to state officials, and in the second year by stating their rationale to the FOI Commission.

“Maybe the FOI Commission can work with the towns and we wouldn’t need a legislative fix,” he said.

He said he hopes that by the third year, small towns will have found ways to comply or technology will have advanced enough to make the process easier for them. Connecticut lawmakers have proposed more than a dozen bills on the topic in the current General Assembly session.

Some would repeal last year’s law entirely. Others seek compromises to exempt smaller communities or ease the potential punishments for towns who try in good faith to obey the law.

Senate Receives Changes

The legislature’s government administration and elections committee last week endorsed the middle-ground proposal backed by Rep Spallone and others. It now heads to the Senate, and would go into effect immediately if the full General Assembly approves it.

March 15 marked the beginning of Sunshine Week 2009, a national initiative in which journalism organizations promote open government and freedom of information.

In a state-by-state survey of the types of state records available online, Connecticut scored in the bottom half of the states surveyed. Of 20 different kinds of public records surveyed, nine were easily accessible online.

Thirty-six other states had more types of state information available online, the survey showed.

The survey found that Connecticut makes available statewide school test data, transportation projects and contracts, political campaign contributions and expenses, disciplinary actions against physicians, audit reports, environmental citations, nursing home inspection reports, consumer complaints, and hospital inspection reports.

But the state fails to make available online disciplinary actions against attorneys, teacher certifications, fictitious business name registrations, expenditures, bridge inspections, child care center inspections, personal financial disclosures, school bus inspections, school inspections, gas pump overcharge records, and death certificates.

The surveys were conducted by newspaper and broadcast journalists, journalism students, state press associations, and reporters and editors from The Associated Press.

Some Associated Press content was used in this story.