Former FOI head: Smaller agency will struggle with open government

After lobbying against changes that would reduce the power of the state’s Freedom of Information Commission (FOIC), the commission’s former executive director, Mitchell Pearlman, said this week that the state of open government in Connecticut remains “one big mess” for the foreseeable future.Under Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s 2011-12 budget, which remains in executive-legislative limbo, the Freedom of Information Commission has been reduced in size and combined with eight other agencies to form a new Office of Governmental Accountability (OGA). Other agencies in the new office include the former Office of State Ethics, State Elections Enforcement Commission, Judicial Review Council, Judicial Selection Commission, Board of Firearms Permit Examiners, Office of the Child Advocate, Office of the Victim Advocate and State Contracting Standards Board.The plan to combine these disparate agencies under one umbrella organization was approved by the state Legislature in May. According to language that became law July 1, the Office of Governmental Accountability will have an executive administrator, with consolidated personnel, payroll, affirmative action, administrative and business office functions. Substantial layoffsThe individual agencies are expected to retain their independent decision-making authorities, including decisions on budgetary issues and employing necessary staff. However, Pearlman said the Freedom of Information Commission has already lost eight of its 23 staff members as part of the shakeup.A number of other consolidations have been proposed, “none of which are good,” he said. The FOIC could lose another three or more staffers in the wake of state union workers rejecting concessions and the governor scrambling to balance the budget, Pearlman said. He added that putting a single person in charge of the entire Office of Governmental Accountability runs the risk of politicizing different departments.In its final approval of the 2011-12 budget, the Legislature passed a resolution that dialed back the power of the Office of Governmental Accountability administrator, giving the individual agencies authority to develop their own budgets. That, Pearlman said, was a good decision. “The Legislature substantially amended the governor’s proposal and weakened his control,” he said. “The administrator will still be appointed by [Gov. Malloy] but the governor will have to select from three nominees chosen by a new commission.” Pearlman also said commissioners of the individual agencies will have the power to fire the executive director. The director’s position itself will be unclassified and not a civil service position, making it easier to remove someone from the office.The biggest problem now is figuring out how to deal with an estimated 800 freedom of information cases per year with a staff that has been cut by more than a third. “If a case is not heard within a year, the complainant is out of luck, “ Pearlman said. “There is no legal recourse. The governor still has to make up for that $1.6 billion budget gap, and the unions are asking for another 16 percent from the commissions. That probably means three more layoffs. That basically eliminates the commission’s ability to hear at least half the cases.”Thousands of people ask Freedom of Information Comission staff for advice on obtaining government information each year. Pearlman said many commission staffers who normally answer phones will end up working on bigger cases, to help alleviate the increased burden. “No one’s going to be on the phone,” Pearlman theorized. “They’re going to be processing cases. There will probably be no public education program, speaking engagements or training of public officials.”Though the fiscal year has begun, the Office of Governmental Accountability doesn’t fully exist yet, Pearlman noted, since an executive director has not been chosen and the state budget is still in limbo — at least until budget numbers are finalized next month. “Right now it’s a question of how the governor is going to fund this big budget hole. There is going to be a lot of competition for relatively few dollars, and my guess is that’s going to take place between now and the end of August, when the governor says it’s time to pay the piper.”The end result, with no leadership in place at the Office of Governmental Accountability and no certainty about funding for the coming year, is a confusing mess, Pearlman said, and one that could have been avoided. “We were yelling at the top of our lungs that this was a disaster waiting to happen,” he said. “To do this without the thought that should go into it was a terrible idea. It had to be thought out thoroughly and it just wasn’t.”