What’s In A Word

Ruling in city’s favor rests upon Plain English definitions

In March of this year, the Connecticut State Supreme Court ruled 6 – 0 in favor of the City of Meriden in the case Meriden v. Freedom of Information Commission, which set out to define what constitutes a meaning.

In a February 2020 article of this magazine, we wrote about this case and the amicus brief that we submitted on behalf of the city. The background as stated then was that four city leaders as well as the retiring city manager began to discuss the search for a new city manager. They reached a consensus to move on this issue in their next meeting. The lawsuit arose when a reporter filed a claim with the Freedom of Information Commission (FOIC), which argued that this constituted a meeting and therefore subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

It is useful to understand the written definition of “meeting” according to the Freedom of Information Act in Connecticut General Statutes that was the basis of this suit:

“Meeting” means any hearing or other proceeding of a public agency, any convening or assembly of a quorum of a multimember public agency, and any communication by or to a quorum of a multimember public agency, whether in person or by means of electronic equipment, to discuss or act upon a matter over which the public agency has supervision, control, jurisdiction or advisory power. “Meeting” does not include: Any meeting of a personnel search committee for executive level employment candidates; any chance meeting, or a social meeting neither planned nor intended for the purpose of discussing matters relating to official business; strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining; a caucus of members of a single political party notwithstanding that such members also constitute a quorum of a public agency; an administrative or staff meeting of a single-member public agency; and communication limited to notice of meetings of any public agency or the agendas thereof. A quorum of the members of a public agency who are present at any event which has been noticed and conducted as a meeting of another public agency under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act shall not be deemed to be holding a meeting of the public agency of which they are members as a result of their presence at such event.

Initially the Appellate Court ruled in favor of the city, overturning the ruling by the FOIC and a lower trial court, but that was raised to the State Supreme Court. This would likely set precedent going forward, as did a 1998 case, Windham v. Freedom of Information Commission. CCM provided an amicus brief in this case as well.

The ruling from the State Supreme Court came with a 14-page opinion which argued that this case must grapple with the definition of the term “meeting” as written in the Freedom of Information Act, as well as precedent set by previous cases.

CCM’s Amicus brief, prepared by Murtha Cullina, was quoted in the Supreme Court decision specifically noting the significant burden on government agencies beyond the scope of the language.

Ultimately, the ruling in favor of the City came down to the understanding of the law based on Plain Language definitions of words like “hearing” and “proceeding,” which had the Supreme Court citing the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Black’s Law Dictionary, the Random House Dictionary of the English Language.

They concluded that the language that was used against the city in the first place was so restrictive and narrow such that all communication between any government officials would constitute a proceeding that would “disrupt the orderly and efficient functioning of government in a manner that the act does not contemplate.”

As was written in the original article, the language we use to create our laws is important, it should provide clarity, not confusion. Here, citing multiple dictionaries across multiple editions, the State Supreme Court reaffirmed the plain language understanding of this law and the importance of avoiding harmful interpretations of laws that would only serve to bring our local government to a halt.