Sen. Kissel: “Transparency discourages corruption and political favoritism.”

The attached article appeared in the October 2, 2013 Journal Inquirer

Pardons Board won’t appeal FOI order

The state Board of Pardons and Paroles has decided not to appeal an order by the Freedom of Information Commission requiring it to comply with Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Act in the future. The order stems from a complaint by a Journal Inquirer reporter about two closed-door meetings that the board held last November. The FOI Commission concluded that the closed meetings were improper because the board had failed to prove that they were held for a purpose authorized by the FOI Act.

How much of the board’s business will have to be done in public in the future has yet to be determined, however.

The legal rationale for the November closed meetings — and all closed meetings the board has held since then — is that they were necessary to avoid disclosure of information in confidential documents. The FOI Commission said in its decision, approved Sept. 11, that the board had failed to prove that pardon files are entirely exempt from public disclosure on grounds that they would constitute an invasion of personal privacy. But how much of each file must be disclosed and how much can be kept confidential has yet to be decided. The FOI Commission is expected to tackle that issue in a second case filed by the JI reporter, seeking access to seven case files the board considered at the two meetings last November.

That case involves not only the “invasion of personal privacy” exception to the FOI Act’s disclosure requirement but also numerous other state and federal laws that the board claims require certain documents to be kept secret.

The board’s three-member pardon panels will be allowed to meet behind closed doors to discuss any legally confidential documents in future pardon files.

The board’s decision not to appeal the Sept. 11 FOI Commission decision to Superior Court was disclosed Monday by Susan E. Kinsman, a spokeswoman for state Attorney General George Jepsen, in an email to a JI reporter.

The announcement came three days after Gov. Dannel P. Malloy told the JI that the board should meet in public, with limited exceptions made for the privacy of crime victims.

Malloy didn’t take a position on whether the board should appeal to court, saying he didn’t know enough about the case. “I think it’s a balancing act, but more often than not, err on the side of transparency,” the governor said Friday. Malloy, a Democrat, added that sometimes the board must protect victims from having to relive crimes or protect the identity of children who were victims of or witnesses to crime Those would be reasons for the board to consider a pardon in secret, he said

The governor’s comments weren’t the only political pressure on the board.

Sen. John A Kissel, R-Enfield, on Thursday wrote a letter to Jepsen urging his office not to appeal the FOI Commission order. “In our pardons and paroles system, transparency discourages corruption and political favoritism,” wrote Kissel, the top Republican senator on the legislature’s Judiciary Committee.