CCFOI watches, reports, comments and warns of the effects of legislation, regulation, court decisions, technological changes and other developments in Connecticut life as they may have an impact on open access to public records, documents and meetings.
How, exactly, can a citizen of Connecticut hold a CT public agency accountable when the Public Information Officer of the CT FOI stated in a News Register article dated 1/1/14 that the real purpose of the CT FOI Commission is to “educate” not “enforce?
http://www.registercitizen.com/article/RC/20140101/NEWS/140109981
Case in point, I am a plaintiff in a current FOI action. It involves a request made to a public official for a contract. The official produced a draft of the contract, but never the signed original despite repeated requests. Then, when testifying in front of a Hearing Officer at CT FOI stated first he never signed the contract, then stated he initialed it, and then said he gave the only copy to the other party and never retained a copy for public record which he is absolutely mandated to do.
The Hearing Officer now recommends dismissal of my case because the contract I request did not exist at the time of my request, yet the Hearing Officer knows for a fact that the contract exists and that it was transferred to a third party in violation of the CT Public Records Act
Yes, I plan to argue prior to the final decision.