FREEDOM CORNER: Your Right to Directly Contact Public Officials

Staff Writer

It has been noted that while the Goshen Town Directory includes names and contact information for Town employees working in various departments and positions, contact information for elected commissioners, board members and committee members (appointed or elected) is conspicuously absent. We wondered: “Don’t Goshen citizens have a right to directly contact their elected officials?” “If so, how can they do that when no contact information is provided by the Town?”

The Goshen News contacted Russell Blair, Director of Education & Communications for the CT Freedom of Information Commission, to ask what contact information citizens have the right to access, and whether the Town is obligated to include such information in the Town Directory. He stated:

“Names, emails and phone numbers of public employees are public records and should be available under FOI. There is no legal requirement that municipalities create or keep a directory like you described, but if you make a request for specific records the agency has that would contain that information it must be provided unless there is an exemption under the law. Off the top of my head I can’t think of anything that would apply to the basic information you have described.”

In order to clarify that the Freedom of Information requirements apply to everyone serving a role in Town government, we refer to the definitions in the FOIA statute:

Section 1-200 of the Freedom of Information Act, Definitions:

(1) “Public agency” or “agency” means: (A) Any executive, administrative or

legislative office of the state or any political subdivision of the state and any state or town

agency, any department, institution, bureau, board, commission, authority or official of

the state or of any city, town, borough, municipal corporation, school district, regional

district or other district or other political subdivision of the state, including any

committee of, or created by, any such office, subdivision, agency, department, institution,

bureau, board, commission, authority or official, and also includes any judicial office,

official, or body or committee thereof but only with respect to its or their administrative

functions, and for purposes of this subparagraph, “judicial office” includes, but is not

limited to, the Division of Public Defender Services; (B) Any person to the extent such

person is deemed to be the functional equivalent of a public agency pursuant to law; or

Accordingly, Goshen citizens do have a right to the contact information of anyone serving in any capacity in our Town government. In the service of public interest, The Goshen News plans to publish an extended list of contact information for Town commissioners and members of boards and committees in its next edition.

We recognize, however, that many in Town government are unaware that this information is public, and as such, they have been using personal email accounts to conduct Town business. In the coming month, they will have the opportunity to establish email accounts that are for Town business only, or the Town itself may choose to set up a system of official emails for each public servant. Any such official email contact information provided to The Goshen News will then be published in lieu of personal contact information.