FOI complaint lodged against Zoppo, Stortz, city

June 6, 2007
To: CT Freedom of Information Commission
From: Jay Meisinger, Bristol
Re: FOI complaint against Mayor William Stortz and City of Bristol
Following information published in The Bristol Press on Tuesday, June 5, 2007, it would appear that 6 members of the 7-member Bristol City Council engaged in one or more unannounced meetings, without proper public notice, electronically or in person, in violation of the Connecticut Freedom of Information Act to discuss and render a decision on the matter of establishing a downtown corporation. Furthermore, it would appear that the final noticed public meeting to vote on January 18, 2007 was not scheduled until the vote had been privately discussed and agreed upon.
It appears from emails distributed through the city’s email system, upon which the reporter based the enclosed news stories, that some Bristol City Council members had polled their collective yea and nay votes outside of the confines of any public meeting, including a continued public hearing of the Ordinance Committee. The parties then clearly worked to prepare scripted responses to voice their support. They clearly agreed to coordinate their responses to a vote that had not been publicly taken, probably via emails and telephone. Some emails of these elected officials may have been made with electronic addresses that are not public and thus not subject to the FOI request made by the reporter, yet may have been the means by which public officials performed the public’s business in a private manner. The Commission is better equipped to request all pertinent information from all parties and all sources. The secret nature of these transactions are clear from the attempt to exclude at least one other elected official, Councilman Art Ward, from all discussion.
Since the charter involves members of both political parties, no one can claim the right to caucus as a political party.
Per information in the newspaper article, those persons primarily involved in the FOI violation appear to be Mayor William Stortz and Councilwoman Ellen Zoppo, City Hall, 111 North Main St., Bristol, CT 06010. Mayor’s office telephone number (860) 584-6250. Others involved include Councilmen Michael Rimcoski, Kevin McCauley and Craig Minor who also may be addressed through city hall.
There seems to be a prima facie case for collective decision making by the Bristol City Council outside of the public meeting process and preparing their collective response outside of public channels. The latter is most clear but it would not have been possible without the former action – collectively voting “yes” in private. The scripts are the fruits of private polling, in effect, a virtual meeting outside the public eye. It is the collective nature and subsequent requests for secrecy that draws attention to these actions.
If section 1-206,4c of the statute applies, then the actions to establish the corporation and all subsequent action by the Council and the new corporation might be null and void based upon inappropriate action by the Bristol City Council.
Although the actions in question may have occurred in December of 2006 and January of 2007, the actions just became known to people by reason of the Bristol Press article on June 5, 2007, therefore the time period to file this complaint is timely as it remains open for 30 days – until July 4, 2007.
There is sufficient reason to request an investigation of the facts by the FOI Commission and to determine if there was a violation of the letter and spirit of the regulations. The enclosed news articles are important to the uncovering of these events but the enclosed emails are largely self-explanatory.
I trust that the Commission will find sufficient cause to investigate and then to draw conclusions. Because these actions that were kept secret for five or more months are now leading to the expenditure of substantial public funds, the commitment of legal resources as well as the commitment of other public resources, the Commission should consider granting interlocutory relief by way of an interim order before further public resources are committed or used.
Signed and Notarized this 2nd day of July 2007.

Zoppo's response Friday:
I have not seen the complaint but have been advised of its receipt at City Hall by the Corporation Counsel's office.
I am aware that it has been submitted by a close friend and political ally of Art Ward's, Jay Meisinger, who is the current Commander of the American Legion.
I do not believe the FOI complaint has any merit and I am disappointed that this has resulted in the city being placed in a position of having to expend resources to defend what was in fact meeting preparation by me, the chair of the Ordinance Committee, as it relates to the ordinance meetings and public hearings on the downtown corporation. I have stated earlier that the word I used, which was script, was an extremely poor word choice and does not reflect that the document used was merely my detailed agenda and order of how the meeting was to be handled. The documents that I shared with you and others clearly indicate that I was tracking concerns of both the public and the members of the council as the public hearings progressed so that nothing would fall through the cracks. There were also variety of technical amendments and a continuance of the public hearing.
I will not apologize for meeting preparation and I do believe that if the City of Bristol has to go forward with defending this claim at the FOI Commission in Hartford, that we will prevail.


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Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com