So after I posted the content of the e-mail and expressed my thoughts, apparently one member of the Redevelopment Commission took offense with the public being made aware of their lack of forward movement.
In an e-mail to all of the Commissioners and City Staff, Board member Suzanne Hopgood wrote the following in an e-mail from her personal account hopgoods@hopgoodgroup.com:
Kevin Brookman's posting (below) concerned me a great deal because it sounded like one of us forwarded to Kevin HRA's internal email to us. I am NOT interested in playing politics as part of my role on either HRA or CRDA and I thought this was totally inappropriate and embarrassed us all. I hope we don't have to worry about this kind public embarrassment going forward.
What she doesn't seem to understand is that all e-mails related to the public's business, with very limited restrictions, are all public documents and it doesn't matter how I get them, the public has every right to see them under the Freedom of Information statutes. And if you don't want public embarrassment, then don't do things that will embarrass you in the Public.
Rather than write ridiculous e-mails, the time of anyone serving on a Public Board or Commission might be better spent taking the time to read the FOI Statutes, available at ct.gov/FOI or by attending an FOI training class, which the FOI staff usually gladly offers. I would also suggest contacting the Hartford Corporation Counsel's Office with any questions, but they don't have the best track record of FOI Compliance.
Hopgood has also recently been name the Chair of Governor Malloy's recently formed Capitol Redevelopment Authority (CRDA). Hopefully the secrecy of the HRDA won't extend to CRDA.
0 comments:
Post a Comment