The Town of East Windsor’s Planning and Zoning Commission will have to undergo training on Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Act following a decision by the Freedom of Information Commission (FOIC).
The East Windsor Commission was cited for failing to post meeting minutes within seven days of a February 28, 2023, Planning and Zoning Commission meeting and for commission members failing to vote on placing a motion to approve the construction of a playground to the agenda.
The town indicated there were some “technical FOI issues” they became aware of following the meeting, but, according to the FOIC decision, took two months before those issues were remedied and the meeting minutes were posted.
“It is found that although the respondents strove to correct the violations of the FOI Act associated with the February 28thmeeting, it took approximately two months before such corrective action was taken,” the FOIC decision says. “The respondents testified, and it is found, that although they try to comply with the minutes requirements under the Act, they ‘sometimes’ post minutes more than seven days after a meeting.”
Although the Town received FOI training from their attorneys in 2022, the FOIC ordered that the Planning and Zoning Commission will receive training again by FOIC staff – a request that was made by the complainant Michael Ceppetelli.
During the hearing, East Windsor attorney Brian McCann said the town became aware of “procedural deficiencies” during the Feb. 28th meeting and held a second meeting to correct those deficiencies, and that they have a new person in charge of posting meeting minutes.
“The town has no objection to going through some FOIA training as recommended in the final decision,” McCann said, but asked that the training be limited to “the agencies that were found responsible for the deficiencies.”
The complainant, however, through his attorney, said the training should be for all town staff and leaders because FOI issues have been an ongoing concern.
“We do think, considering that this is a habitual problem with the Town of East Windsor posting minutes late and not complying with the Freedom of Information regulations that more than just the zoning commission should be required to get FOI training otherwise we’ll be back here again.”
Ultimately, the FOIC determined that since the Planning and Zoning Commission was the technical respondent to the complaint, the training requirement would be limited to those members, however, McCann indicated the town would encourage officials from other town agencies to attend as well.
The Commission previously considered FOI training for East Windsor at the conclusion of a more drawn-out FOI battle between the town and Lynne Stanley, who had run for election to the board of selectmen, and requested documents related to the renovation of Scout Hall, which was approved after two town referendums.
The town had withheld certain documents from Stanley, indicated they would charge her for viewing the 1,400 pages of materials they did provide, criticized her personally for making the request during a board of selectmen meeting, and lobbed accusations that the request was “vexatious.”
Stanley ultimately received the withheld documents and was never charged for viewing the original materials.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
