Court Ruling Cripples Connecticut Public Records Requests

Published on September 7th, 2011
Written by Public Record Finder Staff

The laws of the land are meant to protect its citizens, but sometimes a law can create more chaos than order. On June 28, the State of Connecticut's Supreme Court ruled that all municipalities must redact the addresses of the "protected classes" from motor vehicle lists before meeting the public's need for requested records. This group of people (protected classes) includes police officers, corrections officers, firefighters and other members.

Though this ruling is a means to protect, it has caused a scene of chaos among state officials. If officials comply with the rulings, the public records requests would cease. The ruling culminated from a Freedom of Information request filed by Peter Sachs, lawyer and private investigator three years prior.

Officials are surmising that this ruling should be applied to all public records in addition to the motor vehicle lists. "We have to follow what the court tells us," said Colleen Murphy, executive director of the state's Freedom of Information Commission. "Even if it wasn't a motor vehicle list, we would have to apply the same logic to other records." She stresses that any public list should be researched so addresses of the people who work with state and judicial systems be removed.

The biggest hurdle for those people accessing the public records is that they do not know the occupations of everyone in the state. "The practical effect of this decision is chaos for municipalities," said Dan Casagrande, Danbury-based lawyer who serves as president of the Connecticut Association of Municipal Attorneys. "There is no physical way municipalities can obtain information about the individuals who belong to these protected classes so they can redact them from the lists." He also stresses that anyone can search the Internet to find an address.

Danbury Town Clerk, Lori Kaback, is questioning the ruling. She doesn't think it will be a problem to redact the names of local firefighters and police officers but she wonders how hard it will be to know the occupation of someone who lives in her town but works in another. "How am I supposed to know who in the community works as a corrections officer or for the judicial system? And what do we do if they retire from their job? There are a lot of unanswered questions," she said. Due to the confusion, Les Pinter, Danbury's assistant corporation counsel, has advised the town officials to cease providing public records until some understanding has developed concerning the ruling.

Peter Sachs, the person behind the origination of the rulings sent new Freedom Information requests to see if the court's decision was being upheld. "My point is to show that this is a state statute that, as it stands right now, can't be complied with," Sachs said.

Dozens of people from various groups such as the Connecticut Bankers Association and the Connecticut Association of Town Clerks met to discuss the issue in detail. The meeting was called by Joyce Mascena, president of the Town Clerks Association, who after the meeting realized the gravity of the situation. "People came away from the meeting with a sense of just how big this problem is," she said.

Mascena is hoping to come up with effective solutions to the problem. "It's a difficult subject and a lot is being talked about," she said. "We are hoping to come up with some common-sense solutions that are administratively and economically feasible." Several officials in attendance at the meeting believed a solution would mean the General Assembly would step in and either repeal the ruling or revise it.

According to James H. Smith, president of the nonprofit organization Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information, the ruling should be repealed. "The original law was well-meaning, (intended) to protect certain people who might be in danger, but it was a misguided law," Smith said. "It really goes to the very nature of a free and open society. We should not be creating protected classes."