DERBY – Members of former Mayor Rich Dziekan’s administration violated the state’s Freedom of Information Act by telling a citizen he had to pay $720 up front before the city would comply with a request for public documents.
Robert Lee, the Florida resident who submitted the freedom of information request, said the Dzeikan administration tried to hide information by stonewalling him.
“It seemed to me they wanted to delay this. They didn’t want to give me the information,” Lee testified during a FOI hearing.
The hearing was in August 2023, but this is the first time the violation has been covered by a media outlet. The audio from the hearing is posted below.
Background
Lee’s sister-in-law owns Gemni Software, the company that provided financial software to the City of Derby for about 30 years.
At a public meeting in March 2023, the Dziekan administration presented information to the Derby Board of Aldermen & Alderwomen detailing why the city should drop Gemni and hire Quality Data Service (QDS) instead.
A few elected officials questioned how the bid for the job was advertised since only one company – QDS – bid. Ultimately the majority of the BOA/A voted against the switch, but the Dziekan administration hired QDS nonetheless, with the administration saying they were within their legal right to do so.
FOI Request
Lee watched the meeting on Zoom and said he thought the move was sketchy, so he submitted a freedom of information request on March 15, 2023 to the city asking for all correspondence between QDS and the mayor’s office from January 2023 until March 2023; plus any correspondence from the same time period mentioning QDS or Gemni.
Lee testified that Walt Mayhew, then Mayor Dziekan’s chief of staff, replied to him on March 23, 2023 and said that Derby’s corporation counsel advised the administration to get a quote from the city’s IT vendor for the task.
That quote claimed it would cost $720 for “archival retrieval.”
The one-page quote contained no information about what the “retrieval” entailed or why it would cost $720.
Lee emailed Mayhew back on March 27, 2023 objecting to the notion he would have to pay $720 before a search was conducted. The administration wrote back the same day, saying the cost was “imposed at the direction of their counsel.”
Lee then filed a freedom of information complaint with the state.
A hearing on Lee’s complaint was held in Hartford on Aug. 17, 2023. According to an audio recording of the meeting, John Marini, a lawyer representing Derby, was supposed to be there, but no one from the Dziekan administration showed up, a fact that clearly annoyed the hearing officer.
Lee testified that he assumed the information he requested could be retrieved through a simple e‑mail search. He questioned why the administration threw the simple request to its lawyer, and what information the administration provided to its vendor that resulted in a $720 price quote.
In a Sept. 11 letter to the FOI Commission, Lee argued that, while state law allows the government to charge a fee or pass along fees the government faces from a third-party vendor, Derby’s actions were out of bounds.
“ … in my opinion, these charges should be REASONABLE,” Lee wrote. “In this instance, the emails were ‘recent’ and could easily be gathered using simple search words. In my opinion, this did not require the City to hire an outside vendor (certainly not at a cost anywhere near $720).”
Derby Loses
Ultimately the hearing officer submitted a report stating the City of Derby had violated state law because its actions denied Lee a lawful request to inspect public records. The decision also notes the city’s actions violated state law regarding fees. Click here to read the decision.
Lee had hoped that the city would be fined for its disregard of open government laws, but the commission rarely imposes fines.
The commission voted on its decision in February, but merely ordered the city to comply with state open government laws.
By the time the decision was made, Joseph DiMartino was elected mayor. He submitted a statement to the commission in January 2024 saying he was not aware of Lee’s complaint, but that the city would comply with Lee’s request – at no charge.
Reaction
In an interview this week, Lee said the city has sent him email communication, but he has yet to receive an answer regarding other forms of communications he requested.
Marini, whose firm no longer represents the City of Derby, stopped short of saying the Dziekan administration was wrong. He noted the section of the law that allows the government to impose fees connected to FOI requests.
“The public is entitled to access and that needs to be the paramount concern. Using a third party vendor to retrieve electronic data is entirely valid; that being said, if a less costly option is available, I would certainly advise using that less costly option and avoiding the charge for the requesting party,” Marini said.
Linda Fusco, Mayor DiMartino’s chief of staff, said the city paid its IT firm $720 to search for emails but did not pass the cost onto Lee.
The Valley Indy has asked for all the documents Lee received in his request.
