Monday, March 10, 2014

Cromwell Town Council revises agenda for executive session

By Viktoria Sundqvist

A reporter brought to my attention last week that the Cromwell Town Council agenda for a March 12 meeting lists an executive session to discuss "employee performance."

Under the state's Freedom of Information Act, a board must provide a little more information than that. However, it does not have to provide the name of the person or the person's title. Suggestions would be "to discuss the performance of a town hall employee."

I sent out an email to the town council chairman asking him to revise the agenda to include more information. The chairman forwarded the information to the town manager.

Both the town manager and I contact the FOI Commission's public education officer to clarify the rules on this, and  the result is that the town revised it's agenda to add "Town Hall employee."

It's a small victory for public information, one that didn't require any complaints to be filed. Sometimes, you can help keep town officials up to speed on what the law requires without causing a big uproar. The public now has slightly more information about what will be discussed at the meeting, and the town now knows someone is watching what it posts on its agendas.


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