Category Archives: OGA

Editorial: Office of Government Accountability: Why the Meddling? – Hartford Courant

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The Office of Governmental Accountability and the nine formerly independent state watchdog agencies that the OGA gobbled up in 2011 have been a lousy fit.

The current nasty fight between OGA executive administrator Shelby Brown and Michael Brandi, executive director of one of the principal watchdogs, the State Elections Enforcement Commission, shows why.

Throwing these agencies together administratively hasn’t saved much money. It has robbed the elections commission and other vitally important agencies such as the Office of State Ethics and the Freedom of Information Commission of needed personnel.

It has slowed their regulatory pace. That’s a loss for people who prize clean elections, ethical behavior by public officials and open government. [Read More]

OP-ED | Progress On The FOI Front: Sunshine Is The Best Disinfectant – CTNewsJunkie.com

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By Terry Cowgill

While the freedom-of-information outlook has often been rather grim during the transparency-challenged Malloy administration, the General Assembly’s regular session finished up with some encouraging news.

And gosh knows, we could use some. Remember the “Task Force on Victim Privacy and the Public’s Right to Know,” the ill-advised government secrecy panel formed in the emotional aftermath of the Newtown school massacre? And there was the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, which lobbied (apparently unsuccessfully) to get a slew of new FOI exemptions passed for towns and cities.

And don’t forget the disastrous Office of Government Accountability, a Malloy-inspired effort to consolidate several agencies, including three of the largest autonomous watchdog units, and essentially put them under his control. The act, which (shockingly) included the Freedom of Information Commission, was met with cries of well-earned protest from open-government advocates that grew even louder after a pair of arrogant performances on the part of the OGA’s first two executive administrators. [Read More]

Editorial: Election Commission Shouldn’t Be Under Governor’s Thumb – Hartford Courant

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The Office of Governmental Accountability and the nine formerly independent state watchdog agencies that the OGA gobbled up in 2011 have been a lousy fit.

The current nasty fight between OGA executive administrator Shelby Brown and Michael Brandi, executive director of one of the principal watchdogs, the State Elections Enforcement Commission, shows why.

Throwing these agencies together administratively hasn’t saved much money. It has robbed the elections commission and other vitally important agencies such as the Office of State Ethics and the Freedom of Information Commission of needed personnel.

It has slowed their regulatory pace. That’s a loss for people who prize clean elections, ethical behavior by public officials and open government.

And because the governor has the final say in picking the OGA’s executive administrator, he or she has a perch from which to bully any watchdog who has fallen out of favor. After all, Ms. Brown, the OGA boss, has said in no uncertain terms that “I work for the governor.” [Read More]