03/13/2026
By Mark Pazniokas, CT Mirror
The language was sharp, the exchange surprisingly caustic. At issue was how much the office of Attorney General William Tong could charge for copies of records sought under the terms of a law on books in Connecticut for 50 years, the Freedom of Information Act.
A hearing officer at the Freedom of Information Commission had recommended that Tong’s office not be allowed to charge $65 an hour for a lawyer to review and redact information exempt from disclosure, a task that could cost thousands of dollars. The AG’s representative was not happy.
“The commission’s construction leads to the absurd conclusion that every person can consume public resources without any limit,” said John Langmaid, an assistant attorney general.
The hearing officer, C. Zack Hyde, a lawyer in his fifth year with the agency, forcefully pushed back.
“I think the attorney general’s office has once again reiterated its position that the FOI commission is a waste of its time, which is not in fact the law in Connecticut,” Hyde said. “I think that if the Freedom of Information Act was applied more broadly and more liberally, they could just publish the information online.”
Watching that exchange in mid-January was Colleen Murphy, the commission’s executive director and general counsel. She had been a hearing officer earlier in her career. Now she was the boss, appreciating the young lawyer’s defense of the public’s right to know — and at a reasonable price, no less.
The fight no longer is Murphy’s, at least not officially. On Friday evening, her service will be toasted at the Old State House. She retired on Feb. 27 after 35 years with the commission, the last 21 as its leader.