FREEDOM OF INFORMATION COMMISSION
OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT
In the Matter of a Complaint by FINAL
DECISION
Robert F. McNulty
Complainant
against Docket #FIC
87-154
East
Hartford Town Councilor Wanda Franek
Respondent August
26, 1987
The above-captioned matter was heard
as a contested case on July 1 and July 6, 1987, at which times the complainant
and the respondent appeared, stipulated to certain facts and presented
testimony, exhibits and argument on the complaint.
After consideration of the entire
record, the following facts are found:
1.
On May 12, 1987, the complainant requested in writing that the
respondent provide him with a copy of the emergency medical service
("EMS") petition, including signatures, concerning retention of the
East Hartford EMS program.
2.
The respondent is a member of the East Hartford Town Council and a
former member of that town's EMS Commission, a town agency that serves as an
advisory body to the mayor on matters of EMS.
3.
Within one week of the complainant's request, he received a memorandum
from the respondent asserting that she did not have the petition.
4.
From that denial, the complainant appealed to the Commission by letter
dated May 21, 1987 and filed with the Commission on May 22, 1987.
5.
The respondent claims that at the time of the complainant's request, she
no longer had any of the requested signed petition forms and that, in any
event, she never had such a petition in her capacity as a public official.
Docket
#FIC 87-154 Page 2
6.
It is found that as of the date of the complainant's request, the
respondent no longer had in her possession or custody any of the signed
petition forms, having returned them previously to one of the organizers of the
petition drive.
7.
It also is found that circulating petitions of the sort requested by the
complainant, or involvement in such petition drives, is not one of the express
or implied duties of members of the East Hartford Town Council.
8.
Consequently, even if certain members of the public believed, or were
led to believe, that the respondent was acting in her official capacity with
respect to her involvement with the petition drive in question, it is found
that the respondent was not acting in her capacity as a public official with
respect to such petition drive.
9.
Therefore, it is concluded that the respondent did not violate the
Freedom of Information Act in failing to provide the complainant with a copy of
the requested petition.
The following order by the Commission
is hereby recommended on the basis of the record concerning the above-captioned
complaint:
1.
The complaint is hereby dismissed.
Approved by order of the Freedom of
Information Commission at its regular meeting of August 26, 1987.
Catherine
I. Hostetter
Acting
Clerk of the Commission