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By the time the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission sided with Stephen J. Williams in his 21-month fight for access to state police records, he felt the victory was meaningless. This feeling intensified when state police eventually told him the records didn’t even exist, because he there was no longer any point in challenging the agency yet again. Too much time had passed. The FOI Commission Wednesday ruled the state police again violated the FOI Act’s requirement for prompt access when it failed to process a request filed by the Record Journal in June 2016 for arrest records. “The fact is that you and I won, but we lost,” said Williams, who received his ruling in May 2017. In both cases, the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, which oversees the state police, argued that the delay was the result of a backlog caused by limiting staffing.
Meridian Record-Journal
A New York City lawmaker is trying to help journalists get access to public records more quickly. But those same journalists, as well as good government groups and public records experts, have mixed views on his quest to protect investigative journalism. The proposed legislation, sponsored by Council Member Ritchie Torres—who heads the Council’s Committee on Oversight and Investigation—would establishe a category of “professional journalists” and requires agencies to respond to their Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests within 10 business days after they receive the request, according to the bill’s text. He introduced the bill on Wednesday, first reported by The New York Times. The state’s FOIL law allows any member of the public to access governmental agencies’ records.
Observer
Starting this month, if you get stopped by a police officer in New York City and are not arrested, you may be handed a business card that will explain how to request officers’ body camera footage of the stop. It’s all part of the Right to Know Act, a new law designed to increase transparency within New York’s police department. The law was passed in December in response to allegations of unnecessary and unjustified stop-and-frisk searches by the NYPD, says the legislation. It’s being rolled out first in four precincts across the city, according to a police department directive shared with the New York Post.
CNN
The elections supervisor in Florida’s second-most populous county broke state and federal law by unlawfully destroying ballots cast in Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s 2016 Democratic primary, a judge ruled Friday in a case brought by the congresswoman’s challenger who wanted to check for voting irregularities. In light of the ruling, Gov. Rick Scott’s administration — which has expressed concerns with how Broward County Election Supervisor Brenda Snipes has handled the case — told POLITICO that he’s reviewing the judge’s order and will have her office monitored.
Politico
Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, dined last year in Rome with Cardinal George Pell, a prominent climate-science denialist and Vatican leader who was also facing sexual abuse allegations. The E.P.A. later released official descriptions of the dinner that intentionally did not mention the cardinal’s presence, according to three current and former E.P.A. officials. Kevin Chmielewski, Mr. Pruitt’s former deputy chief of staff for operations, said in an interview that top political appointees at the agency feared that the meeting would reflect poorly on Mr. Pruitt if it were made public. Emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show that as early as May 12, Mr. Pruitt’s scheduler, Millan Hupp, was working on plans for Mr. Pruitt to meet with Cardinal Pell.
The New York Times
A former CIA contractor on Friday pleaded guilty for stealing classified information and then lying about it to investigators, the Justice Department said. According to prosecutors, Reynaldo B. Regis spent a decade conducting unauthorized searches in classified CIA databases, then copying secret information into personal notebooks that he took home. Regis was assigned to the CIA from August 2006 and November 2016. When investigators confronted him about the issue, Regis, 53, lied about his actions, according to court documents. A subsequent search of his home in Maryland uncovered approximately 60 notebooks filled with classified information, DOJ said.
Politico
If you want to know how much your local government is spending on private lobbyists to lobby the Legislature, the Florida House has a web page devoted to disclosing it. But though House Speaker Richard Corcoran promised the web page would provide “transformational” transparency, the House forgot one thing: to post all the data. Records obtained by the Times/Herald show that despite an ethics rule that requires lobbyists for taxpayer-funded entities submit lobbying contracts to the Florida House, that rule has not been enforced. The House’s much vaunted web page was not updated for a year and some lobbyists neglected for months to comply with the required disclosures.
Tampa Bay Times
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“Despite an ethics rule that requires Florida lobbyists for taxpayer-funded entities submit lobbying contracts to the Florida House, that rule has not been enforced.”
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