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FREEDOM OF INFORMATION COMMISSION |
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In
the Matter of a Request |
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Advisory Opinion #48 |
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Crescent Beach Association, Applicant |
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On August 12, 1981, the Commission considered and agreed to respond to the request for an advisory opinion filed on behalf of the Crescent Beach Association
In its letter of request, the applicant states that it has been in existence since the 1930's. It also states that all of its 1981 minutes, notices of meetings, agendas and votes are now on file with the local municipal clerk.
In essence, the applicant seeks the commission's opinion as to whether all of its past records must also be kept in the office of the local municipal clerk.
Conn. Gen. Stat. §1‑19(a), in pertinent Part, reads that each public agency
…shall keep and maintain all public records in its custody at its regular office or place of business in an accessible place and, if there is no such office or place of business, the public records pertaining to such agency shall be kept in the office of the clerk of the political subdivision in which such public agency is located……
In the same regard, Conn. Gen. Stat. S 1‑21 states that the
... votes of each member of any such public agency upon any issue before such public agency shall be reduced to writing and made available for public inspection within forty‑eight hours, excluding any Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, and shall also, be recorded in the minutes of the session at which taken, which minutes shall be available for public inspection within seven days of the session to which they refer. . . The agenda of the regular meetings of public agency . . . Shall be available to the public and shall be filed not less than twenty-four hours before the meetings to which they refer, in such agency's regular office or place of business or, if there is not such office or place of business, … in the office of the clerk of such subdivision for any public agency of a political subdivision of the state.
It is the Commission's opinion that minutes, agendas and records of votes of agency meetings are public records within the meaning of Conn. Gen. Stat. § 1-18a(d). Consequently, under Conn. Gen. Stats. §§ 1-19(a) and 1-21, these and the other agency public records must be kept, maintained and made available for public inspection or copying at the agency's regular office or place of business, if it has one. If it does not have a regular office or place of business, in the case of a local agency, such records must be kept, maintained and made available for public inspection or copying at the office of the clerk of the political subdivision in which the agency is located.
These provisions of the Freedom of Information Act are mandatory. Furthermore, the records they govern are not limited to those of any particular period of time. It is therefore the Commission's opinion that all properly retained public records, past and current, must be kept, maintained and made available to the public in accordance with the requirements of Conn. Gen. Stats. §§ 1‑19(a) and 1‑21. Specifically, this means that if the applicant has no regular office or place of business, all of its records must be kept in the office of the local municipal clerk.
By Order of the Freedom of
Information Commission
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Judith A. Lahey, Chairman of
of the Freedom of Information
Commission
Date ___________________
Ordered_________________
Mary Jo
Jolicoeur
Clerk of the Commission