In response to difficulty accessing information via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, activists in the town of Westport have begun hosting educational events to encourage the public to get involved.

On April 15^th, Representative Town Meeting (RTM) members, organized by Sal Liccione, hosted a presentation at the Westport Library led by Russell Blair, Director of Education and Communications for the Freedom of Information Commission (FOIC), to teach the community how to file FOIA requests and register complaints. Organizers say they are responding to the claims of transparency issues with local officials. 

“Transparency has been a major issue and its consistent, we’ve been asking about dealing with issues downtown, transparency of any issue really, whether it be about the garden, the school, downtown, I can name another few.” Liccione said, “Freedom of information and transparency is not happening within this government.” 

Residents have raised concerns about the lack of openness and accessibility of town meetings, decision-making processes, and public records.

One resident is Toni Simonetti, a concerned citizen, and member of the Westport community garden. The garden is a green space that serves as a place for residents to cultivate plants, vegetables, and fruits with other members of the community. In an interview with Inside Investigator, she said that town officials have not been transparent about the building of the new Long Lots school and its potential consequences for the gardens.

“Inadvertently in the end of June last year, someone stumbled upon the fact that they were looking at building over the garden, so that got our attention. The abutting neighbors had zero idea, the gardeners had zero idea until we inadvertently found out, we were never asked, ‘could you join us in a meeting and discuss the pros and cons [of building over a portion of the community garden]?’ We had to forcibly insert ourselves into the process and the only that we could do that is going to the committee meetings.” 

Ms. Simonetti said members of the garden could offer little input when attending the committee meetings because they did not have the documents being discussed.  

“[The meetings] were wholly unsatisfying, they would discuss the feasibility study of which we had no copy, and you could see that they’re flipping through pages, looking at schematics but they won’t give them to us, and they were discussing about them in these public meetings, so I had to FOIA for them.” 

Ms. Simonetti said she requested the feasibility study and filed FOIA requests with the building committee, but she was denied the construction layouts of the new school field and could not see its placement in the community garden.

“I had to FOIA [request] it twice before I got it, and when I did get it the most important part of what I was interested in, the schematics of where they were going to be building were redacted.” 

When reached out for comment on transparency issues, First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker stated that there were no problems and that meetings for the construction of Long Lots school were happening regularly,

“There have been over 20 public meetings over the last 18 months on this issue and there continues to be regular meetings discussing the Long Lots Elementary School project which includes multipurpose fields and a community garden.” 

Ms. Tooker did not respond to Inside Investigators’ follow-up email seeking clarification about the building of the new school and how community garden members are involved with decision-making. 

The proposed garden is not the only town project where advocates say transparency has been lacking. 

Marc Lemcke, another Westport resident originally filed a FOIA request in March 2022 on the construction of a water tank by Aquarion Water Company, hoping to assuage concerns about water contamination. Lemcke and others say they wanted to gather information on any wrongdoing or problems with the construction.

In the written response to his FOIA request, Mr. Lemcke was offered to go to the Planning and Zoning Department office to review the relevant zoning permit and the public hearing files about the construction. While he did not initially go to the office for the documents because he had received them through email, Mr. Lemcke went after he realized they had emailed him the wrong permits.

Upon arrival, Mr. Lemcke was met with no permit in the file, with staff saying that someone needed the permit and took it out.

“We asked for the construction permit, it’s one of the key documents, I went to the planning office and it wasn’t there, we got the draft [in email] instead. Essentially, we wanted to see what there was and little added up there, there were discrepancies because they gave us the wrong one. I was only able to see what they provided me with, and it wasn’t original permit and public records.” 

Mr. Lemcke says he has filed multiple appeals since 2022 attempting to obtain public records from the Town of Westport concerning the construction of the water tank but has, so far, been denied.  

Liccione, RTM representative for District Nine, emphasized the need for improved communication and collaboration between residents and local officials to address transparency issues effectively.

“My hope is the administration changes course and starts answering questions, emails, does a lot better with FOIA. I hope as a community we can come together. I just wanna come together as a community. That’s the goal.”  

Moving forward, Liccione hopes that Westport FOIA presentations like the one hosted will encourage other residents to become more involved with FOIA requests and complaints.

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