42 Conn. App. 402 | Conn. App. Ct. | 1996
The defendants, freedom of information commission (FOIC) and Douglas Fairchild, appeal
The following facts are relevant to our disposition of this appeal. In July, 1993, and for a period of time prior thereto, Fairchild was a Wallingford police sergeant and the plaintiff was the Wallingford chief of police. On July 30, 1993, the plaintiff, by a written memorandum,
On September 2, 1993, Fairchild filed a complaint with the FOIC, claiming that the plaintiff violated the Freedom of Information Act
In response to Fairchild’s contentions, the plaintiff claimed that the predisciplinary conference was not a meeting under § l-18a (b). The plaintiff asserted that under § l-18a (b), the conference was excepted from being a meeting because it was “an administrative or staff meeting of a single-member public agency.”
The commissioner issued a final decision that was adopted by the FOIC. The FOIC determined that the plaintiff had violated §§ 1-21 (a) and l-21a (a).
The plaintiff appealed from the FOIC’s decision to the trial court. The trial court sustained the plaintiffs appeal, finding that the FOIC improperly determined that the predisciplinary conference should have been open to the public. In its memorandum of decision, the court stated: “The court has reviewed the whole record and the arguments of counsel and concludes that the conference was part of the grievance procedure established by the collective bargaining agreement between the town and the police union. That being so, the conference was not a ‘meeting’ as that term is defined in § 1-18a (b) and was not subject to the requirement of § 1-21 that ‘meetings’ be held in public.” It is clear from the memorandum of decision that the trial court was persuaded by the plaintiffs argument that the conference was not a meeting pursuant to § l-18a (b) because it was “strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining.”
“Judicial review of [an administrative agency’s] action is governed by the Uniform Administrative Procedure Act (General Statutes, c. 54, §§ 4-166 through 4-189), and the scope of that review is very restricted. . . . Neither this court nor the trial court may retry the case or substitute its own judgment for that of the defendant. . . . New Haven v. Freedom of Information Commission, 205 Conn. 767, 773, 535 A.2d 1297 (1988). Even as to questions of law, [t]he court’s ultimate duty is only to decide whether, in light of the evidence, the [agency] has acted unreasonably, arbitrarily, illegally, or in abuse of its discretion. . . . Conclusions of law reached by the administrative agency must stand if the court determines that they resulted from a correct application of the law to the facts found
The administrative record reveals that the FOIC determined, on the basis of the evidence before it, that there was no support for the plaintiffs refusal to allow the predisciplinary conference to be open to the public or to be tape-recorded by Fairchild. See id., 73. The FOIC’s decision “met the factual situation as presented”; id.; namely, whether the predisciplinary conference was a meeting subject to public exposure or an administrative or staff meeting of a single-member public agency that would be exempt from public exposure. This was the sole issue presented to the FOIC for analysis under § l-18a (b).
The judgment is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
The defendants appealed separately from the judgment of the trial court. The appeals are consolidated here.
General Statutes § l-18a (b) provides: “ ‘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’ shall 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. ‘Caucus’ means a convening or assembly of the enrolled members of a single political party who are members of a public agency within the state or a political subdivision.”
General Statutes § 1-15 et seq.
General Statutes § 1-21 (a) provides in pertinent part: “The meetings of all public agencies, except executive sessions as defined in subsection (e) of section l-18a, shall be open to the public. ...” (Emphasis added.)
General Statutes § l-21a (a) provides in pertinent part: “At any meeting of a public agency which is open to the public, pursuant to the provisions of section 1-21, proceedings of such public agency may be recorded, photographed, broadcast or recorded for broadcast, subject to such rules as such public agency may have prescribed prior to such meeting, by any person or by any newspaper, radio broadcasting company or television broadcasting company. . . .” (Emphasis added.)
See General Statutes § l-18a (e).
See footnote 2.
See footnotes 4 and 5.
The FOIC’s findings were, in pertinent part, as follows: “The [plaintiff] claims that the subject conference was not a meeting of a public agency within the meaning of § l-18a (b) . . . but rather was an administrative or staff meeting of a single-member public agency to which § 1-21 (a) . . . is not applicable. ... It is found that the town of Wallingford has no independent police commission charged with disciplining its police officers. . . . It is found that with respect to the conference, the [plaintiff] police chief
See footnote 2.
Subsequent to the defendants’ filing of their appeals to this court, the plaintiff filed a motion for articulation; see Practice Book § 4051; requesting that the trial court address the plaintiffs contention that the predisciplinary conference was “an administrative or staff meeting of a single-member public agency.” The trial court denied the motion. Subsequently, the plaintiff filed in this court a motion for review of the trial court’s denial of the motion for articulation. See Practice Book § 4054. In his motion for review, the plaintiff requested that we order the trial court to elaborate on its decision in the manner requested by the plaintiff in his motion for articulation. We
The FOIC record contains excerpts from the town of Wallingford charter and the agreement between the town of Wallingford and the Wallingford police union local. The excerpts concern the powers and duties of the police chief regarding the discipline of police employees. There is no indication in the record that the plaintiff submitted these excerpts for any reason other than to assist in explaining the disciplinary process.