Bills concerning the records of cemetery associations, public comment periods and remote meetings are on their way through the legislature.
freedom of information
Posted inGovernment
CT comptroller released disputed documents one day before public records hearing
A year after withholding public disclosure of the price of taxpayer-funded purchases, Comptroller Kevin Lembo changed course.
Posted inEducation
Tong: State officials in Dalio partnership must share public records
The state’s partnership with Ray Dalio’s philanthropic group might be exempt from FOI laws, but the AG says lawmakers on the board are not.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Court: UConn can withhold names of animal researchers, for now
The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a trial judge used the wrong legal standard when he ordered the University of Connecticut to give an animal-rights group the names of researchers who had violated animal-research protocols. The university withheld the names to protect the researchers from potential abuse by animal-rights activists.
Posted inEducation
The Basics: UConn Foundation transparency bill wins final passage
The state House of Representatives gave final passage Monday to a bill that will increase the information the University of Connecticut’s private fundraising arm must make public. The bill now heads to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s desk.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Secrecy Awards go to Malloy, UConn and others
In recognition of National Sunshine Week, here are the first Secrecy in Government Awards offered by the board of directors of the nonprofit Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Law barring access to CT history should be fixed by [name redacted]
Five years ago it wasn’t against the law in Connecticut to get historical records. Now, after the mental health community’s end run around proper legislative practice, it is time to once again enable our historians and researchers and poets and biographers access to the information they need to explain who we are to each other.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Court affirms teacher misconduct records are public
The state Supreme Court affirmed Monday that records of alleged misconduct by teachers at public schools and universities in Connecticut are public records subject to release under the Freedom of Information Act.
Posted inEducation, Politics
UConn disciplinary investigation tests limits of FOI
The Connecticut Supreme Court was urged on the opening day of its new term Tuesday to draw “a bright line” defining when public institutions of higher education must release findings of professional misconduct and other disciplinary records.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut should demand more disclosure by the police
Some key Connecticut legislators are telling us to compromise on how much the people can know about crime and punishment, how much we can know about how the police are protecting the public from alleged criminals. I am not sure how to compromise on the right of the people to know what their government is doing in their name.
Posted inNews
Op-Ed: CT lawmakers should restore openness of arrest records
The legislature should pass and governor should sign a bill that restores the obligation of police to disclose certain information about arrests. The bill restores a standard that has existed under state law for the past 20 years until it was stricken by the State Supreme Court.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
CT lawmakers should restore openness of arrest records
The legislature should pass and governor should sign a bill that restores the obligation of police to disclose certain information about arrests. The bill restores a standard that has existed under state law for the past 20 years until it was stricken by the State Supreme Court.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Op-ed: Beware! (of Gov. Malloy’s new Victims’ Rights panel)
Freedom of information laws in Connecticut and elsewhere are continually being watered down so that it is harder and harder for citizens to know what the government is doing.
Posted inPolitics
CT Senate leader opposes privacy bill as affront to FOI
In testimony delivered in quick succession Monday to two legislative committees, Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, strongly condemned post-Newtown legislation that would restrict public access to 9-1-1 recordings, police photographs and names of witnesses in drug or violent crimes.
Posted inPolitics
Opinion: CT government’s conflicted feelings about transparency
Gov. Dannel Malloy’s Executive Order #39, signed last month, creates an open data portal to “further Connecticut’s commitment to transparency, efficiency, social progress, and economic expansion.” But there are other kinds of actions — being undertaken by the state legislature — that would undercut the trend toward greater transparency.