Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information
Minutes, April 3, 2024
This legislative update meeting was via Zoom.
Present: Tom Scheffey, Jacqueline Smith, Mary Connolly, Jeff Daniels, Michele Jacklin, Mitch Pearlman, Chris Powell, Steve Nevas, Liz Gemski, Paula Pearlman, Russell Blair, Colleen Murphy.
Legislative report: Gemski said there is not much to report. She is setting up meetings with legislators and waiting for any actions on FOI-related bills. There will be no revisions done to the state budget and any bill that costs new money will be dead on arrival.
Concern continues about the proposal to create an exemption from disclosure under the FOI Act for records maintained by faculty or staff of a public higher education institution. The exemption would cover records created by teaching, research, artistic, scientific, legal or other scholarly activities. Daniels suggests one approach in opposing this bill is to emphasize what won’t be visible to the public if the legislation passes. The bill is so broad it will cover much of what goes on at a publicly funded university. He said even a list of books required for classes won’t be publicly available. It has become clear proponents simply don’t want to deal with FOI requests.
Looking ahead: The next monthly meeting will be April 17 at 9 a.m. via Zoom