Town Clerk Aiming For Website FOIA Conformity By Jan

By John Voket

Newtown Town Clerk Debbie Aurelia is close to having the municipality’s website in conformity with newly enacted aspects of the state Freedom of Information Act, which took effect October 1.

Several aspects of Public Act 08-3, which is actually an ethics reform measure that incorporates FOIA components, are forcing town clerks across the state to ensure their websites offer appropriate meeting notices, agendas, and minutes in accordance with the new guidelines.

Section 11 of the act contains three provisions that mandate all state municipalities hosting websites:

*Under subsection (a) all agencies must post their meeting minutes within seven days of the meeting on the agency’s website, if available.

*Subsection (b) requires all state agencies to post their regular meeting schedule on the agency’s website, if available.

*Subsection (d) requires that all agencies must post their special meeting notices not less than 24 hours before said special meeting on the agency’s website, if available.

While a number of board and commission agendas and minutes records have been available on the local website, newtown-ct.gov, for quite some time, it is Ms Aurelia’s mission to have required information from every applicable board, commission, and public agency available for public review online by early January.

Based on a Newtown Bee canvass of the town’s website December 22, about a dozen board or agency “agendas and minutes” links remained blank. But corresponding information about many of those groups indicated that most only meet occasionally, or as needed.

Therefore, if no agendas or minutes were posted since October 1, there would be no corresponding information on the town’s website. Several agencies or ad-hoc committees that have met since October 1 are expected to begin supplying the necessary information to the town clerk by January, Ms Aurelia said.

Borough Will Conform

One of those links, to the Borough of Newtown, is in the process of getting linked according to Borough Warden James Gaston. Responding to an email from The Bee regarding missing meeting information, Mr Gaston said his understanding was that the new legislation pertains to municipalities if they have an “official” website.

“I read in the Law Tribune where several small towns took their websites off of ‘official’ status because they thought it too cost prohibitive to comply to this unfunded mandate,” Mr Gaston observed. “As the borough does not have an official website, though some information is gratuitously provided by the town on its website, the statute does not apply to it at this time.”

Beginning in the new year, however, though the town website will not be its official website, Mr Gaston plans to post the borough’s public notices, agendas, and minutes on a borough page as if it were the official website.

“The borough meetings are already posted on the website’s monthly calendar,” Mr Gaston said. “I think this would be a win-win for everyone, another means of public access to information while not creating a prohibitively costly endeavor in light of the nominal size budget of the Borough.”

One of the towns Mr Gaston was referring to is Harwinton, a small community bordering Litchfield and Thomaston. According to reports, that community opted to remove its website from service rather than commit the revenues necessary to conform with the new law.

Officials in another Litchfield County town, New Hartford, have equated the legislative measure to an unfunded mandate. Its municipal link is accessible, but only contains a single page indicating a “brand new website” is about to launch.

FOIC ‘Sympathetic’

Since these provisions are related to the FOIA, but were not solicited by the state’s Freedom of Information Commission, FOIC staff attorney Hank Pawlowski said his staff is sympathetic to towns struggling to conform.

“Certainly if we were involved, it probably would have rolled out quite differently,” Mr Pawlowski told The Bee this week. Although the commission currently is reviewing two appeals regarding municipal website conformity, or lack thereof, he said ultimately that the next legislative session will likely affect clarifications in the statute that will allow towns more time to bring websites into conformity, as well as possibly allowing board and commission clerks more time to process minutes for the web.

“The complaint is currently, the filing deadlines are the same for the web as for filing [paper documents] with the town clerks,” Mr Pawlowski said. In the future, new language may allow additional time for small towns with limited resources to process legally filed minutes and other public documents for their corresponding websites.

In the meantime, here in Newtown Ms Aurelia has notified all boards, commissions, and public agencies either by mail or phone about her hope to see the town conforming with existing guidelines.

“Board or commission chairs should be in touch with the town clerk’s office if they need assistance with getting their documentation filed for inclusion on the website,” Ms Aurelia said.

In addition, Ms Aurelia is awaiting software she recently ordered that will allow her staff to scan various attachments to minutes like letters and other pieces of correspondence as portable document format or PDF files, so she can provide even more complete documentation to those seeking meeting information.