The Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information has bestowed its
annual Stephen A. Collins Award on Tom Appleby, general manager and news
director of News 12 Connecticut in Norwalk. CCFOI also awarded its
Champion of Open Government Award to Sherman London,
a member of the state Freedom of Information Commission and retired
editorial page editor of the
Waterbury Republican-American.
CCFOI’s Bice Clemow Award, given to public officials for outstanding
leadership in “promoting open and accountable government,” went to six
public officials, including four who helped lead a broad coalition which
successfully kept municipal records, including
grand lists and voting lists, from having home addresses redacted for
so-called “protected classes” of residents.
Under state law certain “protected” state officials and workers --
judges, prosecutors, prison guards and others – can remove their home
addresses from the public portions of their sate personnel files. A
state Supreme Court decision expanded that protection
to municipal records. The town clerk’s coalition, of which CCFOI was a
member, helped get new legislation passed keeping the most critical
local records intact and open, as they have been for three hundred
years.
The municipal award winners were: Joyce Mascena, Glastonbury town clerk
and president of the Connecticut Town Clerk’s Association; Antoinette
“Chick” Spinelli, Waterbury town clerk and chairwoman of the association’s
Legislative Committee; Essie Labrot, West Hartford
town clerk; and Patrick Alair, West Hartford deputy corporation
counsel.
Also receiving Clemow awards were Lisa Rein Siegel, the state Freedom of
Information Commission lawyer who argued the redacted addresses case
before the state Supreme Court; and Mary E. Schwind, the managing
director and associate general counsel of the commission.
The Clemow award is named for the late, longtime editor and publisher
of the
West Hartford News.
The Collins award is given in the name of the longtime editorial
director of the News-Times in Danbury, who, along with Clemow and
others, worked closely with the late Gov. Ella T. Grasso to pass the
state Freedom of Information Act in 1975. Appleby was co-chairman
(along with then-chief state criminal court Judge Patrick Clifford), of
a committee that developed guidelines that now allow still and video
cameras in state courtrooms. Apple received the award “for his many
contributions to the cause of open and accountable
government and a free and vigorous press.”
London, who is 90 and, after 16 years, the longest serving commissioner
on the
state Freedom of Information Commission, received the Champion
award “In recognition of his extraordinary service to the people of the
state of Connecticut in preserving, defending
and enhancing access to government information essential to a healthy
and vibrant democracy.”
The awards were presented at CCFOI’s annual lunch at the Hartford Club
June 20. CCFOI is a nonprofit corporation founded in 1955 to advocate
for open and accountable government.
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