When the legislature adjourned sine die as the clock struck midnight on June 4, the majority of the session’s bills affecting the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) died on the chamber calendars.
Several frequent flyer bills that have appeared in previous legislative sessions once again failed to clear session hurdles and reach final passage. These include a bill that would exempt most public records produced by public universities from FOIA disclosure and several bills that would have expanded the number of public employees whose residential addresses are exempt from disclosure.
A controversial measure in a police accountability bill, which would have prohibited the disclosures of police officers unless they had been investigated or adjudicated, also failed to pass both chambers.
A bill implementing largely technical corrections recommended by the Freedom of Information Commission (FOIC), which has appeared in several previous legislative sessions, also failed to pass both chambers, as did a proposal by Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott, that would have required a study of public agencies’ response times to FOIA requests.
Earlier in the week, the Senate passed in concurrence a bill that expanded existing law to protect the location of shelters that serve victims of sexual assault. Original language in the bill would have required towns to go into executive session when discussing the location of such shelters, but that language was changed to give towns the option to enter executive session.
Several other FOI bills did not make it out of committee, including a bill that would have prohibited the names and addresses of lottery winners from being exempt from FOIA disclosure, and a bill that would have added attorneys working for the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection and the U.S. attorneys office to the list of public employees whose residential addresses are exempt from FOIA disclosure. Another bill would have exempted the plans of single-family dwelling units from FOIA disclosure. Those bills did not receive public hearings.
Bills affecting FOIA that did not make it to final passage include:
The bill would have added public school teachers to the list of public employees whose residential addresses are exempt from FOIA disclosure. Language added during the committee process also created a task force to study and make recommendations on the broader FOIA exemption for public employees. SB 1209 was reported out of the Committee on Government Oversight (GOC) and placed on the Senate calendar. The senate did not take any action.
The bill would have required the Office of Policy and Management to study state agency response times to FOIA. It was reported out of GOC and placed on the Senate calendar, but was never taken up.
The bill would have added employees in the attorney general’s office to the list of public employees whose residential addresses are exempt from FOIA disclosure. It was reported out of GOC and placed on the Senate calendar but was never taken up.
The bill would have exempted most records produced by public universities, including records arising from research, teaching, and records produced by legal clinics or centers, from FOIA disclosure. A version of the bill has appeared in two previous legislative sessions but has failed to make it to final passage.
The bill was reported out of the Committee on Government Administration and Elections (GAE) and placed on the Senate calendar. Though it was never taken up by the chamber, an amendment was filed shortly before the end of the session. While the original bill language added an additional exemption to those that are already part of FOIA, exempting most public university records, the amendment would have changed FOIA’s definition of a public record to exclude most records produced by public universities.
Another address bill, HB 6850 would have expanded the existing FOIA exemption for the residential addresses of public employees to include all categories of public employees not already covered by the exemption, excluding employees whose residency is a requirement of their job. It was reported out of GAE and placed on the House calendar, but was never taken up.
The bill would have impacted the availability of documents related to the state’s collection of reports on alleged hate crimes or bias reports. The bill would have exempted the name and address of individuals reporting alleged hate crimes and the name and address of the individual the report was against from FOIA disclosure. It applied to police records and also to a database maintained by the University of Connecticut’s Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy (IMRP). IMRP collects data from the state’s hate crime reporting portal.
The bill was reported out of GAE and placed on the Senate calendar, but was never taken up.
The bill contained largely technical revisions to FOIA made by the FOIC. Among the bill’s provisions was a clarification of an error in current statute that makes the FOIC responsible for training on rules that apply to training around public buildings, which is beyond the commission’s purview. The bill also would have updated language impacting requesters’ abilities to make copies of public records, clarifying that the definition of a hand-held scanner includes smartphones.
A similar bill containing these updates has appeared in three previous legislative sessions. The bill was voted approvingly out of the House and placed on the Senate calendar. The Senate did not take up the bill before final adjournment.
Part of a broader police accountability bill, a section of SB 1436 would have prevented the release of complaints made against police officers unless they had been investigated or adjudicated. The provision’s potential to hamper accountability and transparency drew concern from FOI experts, especially as it appeared to potentially conflict with state law.
In a surprise move, the Senate took up and unanimously passed the bill without discussion or debate in May. Shortly after the bill was passed, Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, said she “made a mistake” voting for it and suggested legislators were working on language to walk back the provision. However, the House never took up the bill and it died when the session adjourned.
Transparency Note: Katherine Revello is a member of the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information’s board of directors. CCFOI submitted testimony on some of these bills.
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I find it appalling, that the Legislature, would even consider bills to hide addresses of teachers and State aids, especially after failing to properly fix the 100 % PERMANENT AND TOTAL DISABLED COMBAT VETERAN PROPERTY TAX EXMPTION! 3 times they rewrote it, passed every time, and it still was screwed up! Screwed up so much that 450 Combat Disabled Veterans were denied the exemption! My discussion with legislators about this error feel on deaf ears!