Hubris Or Ignorance? Ansonia Tax Board Goes Underground

Ansonia officials barred members of the public and three reporters from attending two “workshops” about the city’s proposed budget Monday.

The bizarre action flies in the face of the Freedom of Information Act, state FOI experts said Tuesday.

Ansonia officials erred by first holding the impromptu tax board “workshops” — and then messed up again by not allowing the public into the proceedings, experts agreed.

Background

The tax board held a public hearing on the city’s proposed 2011-2012 budget Monday.

It was a routine meeting, as far as public hearings go. Click here to read about it.

At the end of the meeting, there was a discussion about whether to go into an executive session.

(Executive sessions are closed meetings, allowed under state law in certain circumstances, such as when public officials want to discuss a legal defense, specific personnel issues or real estate deals.)

Members of the tax board decided they could not legally hold an executive session because they had not notified the public about their intent to do so.

The tax board then ended the public meeting.

Small Group Huddle?

But, instead of calling it a night, the tax board then split into two groups to talk in private about the budget.

One group met on the first floor. The second group met on the second floor. Reporters were asked to leave.

It wasn’t entirely clear why they were meeting in such a manner or what precisely they planned to talk about. City officials gave different reasons for the closed-door meetings.

Click here to read a full account of what Ansonia officials said.

Officials seemed to believe that by splitting into two smaller groups they would be able to legally circumvent state rules about open meetings and executive sessions.

Officials indicated that since neither of the two tax board groups had a quorum, they were allowed to exclude the public.

Because there was no quorum in either group, the gatherings did not meet the legal definition of a public meeting, tax board member Edward Norman said.

That is wrong, experts said.

“It sure seems to me like they’re finding creative ways to get around the law,” said James Smith, a retired newspaper editor and four-time winner of the Society of Professional Journalists First Amendment award.

Smith, a veteran journalist from Oxford, called Monday’s workshops a “bold-faced snubbing your nose at the public’s right to know.”

“There are exemptions that allow them to go into executive sessions,” Smith said. “But what’s more fundamental than people’s taxes and a budget? They really shouldn’t be secretive about it.”

A veteran municipal attorney agreed with Smith.

Rick Gottschalk served as the City of Danbury’s corporation counsel for 30 years before retiring in 2008. He still does part-time legal work for the city of some 80,000 people.

Gottschalk also served as a member of the board of directors for the Connecticut Foundation for Open Government.

“No, you cannot divide a board to avoid the Freedom of Information Act,” Gottschalk said. “You can’t say ‘You three people go over there. You three go over there and we’ll all meet back in the room and do something.’ You can’t avoid the Freedom of Information Act by having serial non-meetings,” he said.

If such “get togethers” or “workshops” were allowed, “You’d never have to comply with the Act,” Gottschalk said.

“The Freedom of Information Commission is not going to buy this,” he said.

Were Those Meetings?

Mitch Pearlman is the former executive director of the state Freedom of Information Commission, where he served for more than 30 years.

He is the author of a book about government secrecy and the Freedom of Information Act.

Pearlman said the two “workshops” described by the Valley Indy fall under the legal definition of a public meeting.

If the tax board directed its members to meet in small groups to talk about the budget — then it is a public meeting as defined by state law, Pearlman said.

The definition of a public meeting is more complicated than whether there is a quorum.

“A meeting has a number of definitions, only one of which is a quorum of the agency,” Pearlman said.

Under state law, the public must receive notice of a public meeting — and be allowed to attend.

Neither happened Monday in Ansonia City Hall.

“They really had two meetings that sound like they constitute a proceeding. That would be subject to FOI law,” Pearlman said.

Executive Session?

Ansonia officials seemed to be under the impression Monday that budget talks, in general, can be held behind closed doors in executive session meetings.

Tax board members indicated Monday they wanted to meet in executive session to discuss “personnel” issues.

That is also questionable, under the Freedom of Information Act.

“If they’re talking about an individual human being, that’s one thing. If they’re talking about a line item (in a budget), that is not permissible,” Pearlman said.

Lisa Siegel, an attorney with the state Freedom of Information Commission, said the law doesn’t allow executive sessions for general “personnel” discussions — only issues with specific employees.

“It needs to be a single person, or one or two identifiable people,” Siegel said. “It can’t just be a general category of who are we going to lay off, or are we going to hire new paralegals.”

Even Ansonia’s corporation counsel, who was not at City Hall Monday, acknowledged that the moves weren’t wise.

“It wasn’t the best thing to have done,” said Corporation Counsel Kevin Blake. “It may not have violated the FOI act. I’m not saying that’s definitive. But I think maybe it wasn’t the best thing they should have done.”