Winsted BOE votes to put restrictions on email inspection

WINSTED - The Board of Education approved a request by The Winsted Journal to view emails by board members relating to board business at a special meeting on Saturday, Sept. 17.However, the board voted to impose very strict restrictions on viewing the emails.

The vote comes after a Freedom of Information (FOI) request filed on Aug. 9 by The Winsted Journal to view board emails relating to board of education business. Resigning board Chairman Kathleen O’Brien had stated, upon leaving the board, that the board has been conducting business through electronic messages.Acting Board member Christine Royer requested in August that advance payment be made for any emails printed by the school district.At their regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 3, the board voted to decline The Journal’s request for a public interest waiver and imposed a fee on copies of the emails.Under the state Freedom of Information Act, a public agency can waive any fees providing that the applicant’s request benefits the general welfare of the public.The board voted to table The Journal’s request to review and inspect any and all emails before purchasing them.At the meeting, the board originally did not agree with The Journal’s request.However, board member Richard Dutton requested that the board consult with its attorney, Mark Sommaruga, and to make a decision at the Sept. 17 special meeting, held at 11:30 a.m. (originally scheduled for 8 a.m.).When The Journal’s FOI request came up at the special meeting, board member Royer requested an executive session, despite the fact that an executive session was not listed on the meeting’s agenda.“We have items on here that are attorney/client privileges, but we have no executive session on here,” Royer said.“Executive session can be held at any time,” Dutton told Royer. “Will we be caught on that? I don’t think so.”Dutton eventually decided against holding an executive session during the meeting.Later in the meeting, Superintendent of Schools Tom Danehy told the board that he had handed a letter out from Sommaruga to reporters at the meeting.Danehy then requested that the reporters hand back the letter from Sommaruga.This reporter did not hand the letter back at first, saying that once information is given to the media it becomes the media’s property.Board member Paul O’Meara then threatened to call the police department on this reporter to retrieve the letter.“You have attorney information there and it’s against the law for you to have it,” O’Meara said. “It was handed to you by accident. We can go this route. If you start reading this document, then the Board of Education can sue you for reading this document. So if you want to cross this road.”This reporter reluctantly handed the letter back to O’Meara. The other two reporters from The Register Citizen and The Republican American also handed the letter written by Sommaruga back to the board.Danehy went out of the meeting to consult with Sommaruga over the phone concerning the letter.Danehy eventually came back into the meeting and said Sommaruga told him that the board has not waived their rights to attorney/client privilege.“It was given out inadvertently,” Danehy said. “The comparison was given to what is on the bottom of a fax: If you get something that isn’t yours then you should send it back.”The letter in question, written by Sommaruga, indeed was read by this reporter, and states that, under FOI laws, the board must allow The Journal to examine and inspect any emails without having to make any advance payment.Sommaruga added in his letter that the board could charge for hard copies for any emails requested by The Journal.The board then voted to allow The Journal to inspect and review board emails at the school district’s office.In the motion, Dutton added a charge of 50 cents per page for any emails printed out.However, Royer amended the motion to add that for any inspection to take place, a Board of Education member must be present as The Journal inspects the emails.As for having a notebook, tape recorder or a camera at the office while emails are inspected, members of the board said any type of materials that could be used for recording information would be prohibited.“Inspect means to look at,” Dutton said. “As far as I’m concerned, inspect means just to look at.”

— Shaw Israel Izikson - Staff Reporter

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