43 Conn. App. 133 | Conn. App. Ct. | 1996
The defendant freedom of information commission (FOIC)
The record discloses the following factual and procedural history. On January 28, 1991, M. Jeffry Spahr, deputy coiporation counsel for the city of Norwalk (city), requested an advisory opinion, pursuant to General Statutes § 4-176 (a),
In his letter to the FOIC, Spahr contended that, because the mediation board was a public agency within the meaning of § l-18a (a),
Subsequently, on February 19, 1992, the FOIC issued a ruling in which it concluded that “arbitration hearings are neither strategy nor negotiation sessions” with respect to collective bargaining and that “the Board’s policies prohibiting the tape recording of its arbitration hearings violate, and are superseded by, the provisions of the [act].” The FOIC also concluded that, although arbitration hearings are public meetings within the meaning of the act, the board “may certainly convene in executive session in those instances permitted under [the act].” The FOIC decided that the request for an advisory opinion did not necessitate a finding as to “whether a tape recording of an arbitration hearing, kept by the Board, is subject to public disclosure under [the act].”
Although the mediation board and the board of labor relations appealed separately to the Superior Court, the trial court consolidated the appeals because they involved the same administrative proceeding. On January 6, 1995, the court issued separate memoranda of decision sustaining the boards’ appeals. In the mediation board’s appeal, the court concluded, inter alia, that “arbitration hearings are not meetings within the purview of § l-18a (b)” and ordered the FOIC’s advisory opinion “set aside, vacated and rescinded.” The trial court sustained the appeal of the board of labor relations “for the reasons recited” in the related appeal.
The FOIC first claims that the trial court improperly determined that grievance arbitration proceedings conducted by the mediation board, pursuant to General Statutes § 31-91 et seq., are not public meetings within the meaning of the act and are, therefore, not governed by the act. The FOIC argues that grievance arbitration proceedings fall within the definition of a public meeting pursuant to § 1-18 a (b) because they are not “strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining . . . ,”
With these principles in mind, we now consider whether the trial court properly vacated the FOIC’s ruling. The trial court relied on this court’s holding in Glastonbury Education Assn. v. Freedom of Information Commission, 35 Conn. App. 111, 118-19, 634 A.2d 1320 (1994), aff'd, 234 Conn. 704, 663 A.2d 349 (1995), to support its finding that “the current appellate law is that arbitration hearings are not meetings within the meaning of § l-18a (b) . . . that arbitration hearings are ‘continued negotiations’ and therefore not subject to the [act].” In Glastonbury, we were called on to determine whether binding arbitration proceedings, conducted pursuant to General Statutes § 10-153a et seq., are subject to the open meeting provisions of the act. Id. In doing so, we interpreted the language of § 1-18a (b) and held that, given the legislative history of the act, “the legislature intended the term meeting [as found in § 1-18a (b)] not to apply to any part of the collective bargaining process.” Id., 118.
In Bloomfield, we concluded that the trial court properly upheld the FOIC’s determination that the filing of a grievance is not exempted from disclosure under § 1-19 (b) (9) of the act because it is does not constitute a record, report or statement of strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining. Id. We reasoned that, “[ajlthough grievances may be the subject of collective bargaining, the mere filing of a grievance, standing alone, and containing limited information . . . does not reveal any strategy or negotiations involved in the collective bargaining process.” Id., 388. We further
With respect to the grievance arbitration proceedings at issue here, however, Bloomfield necessarily implies that a different result is necessary. Because grievance arbitration proceedings are labor disputes, the parties will necessarily engage in strategy and continued negotiations with respect to the underlying collective bargaining agreement. See National Labor Relations Board v. City Disposal Systems, Inc., 465 U.S. 822, 831-32, 104 S. Ct. 1505, 79 L. Ed. 2d 839 (1984); United Steelworkers v. Warrior Navigating Co., 363 U.S. 574, 578, 80 S. Ct. 1347, 4 L. Ed. 2d 1409 (1960); Genovese v. Gallo Wine Merchants, Inc., 226 Conn. 475, 493, 628 A.2d 946 (1993). “Strategy is defined as a careful plan or method and the art of devising or employing plans or stratagems toward a goal. . . . Negotiations is a broad term, not in all connotations a term of art, but in general it means the deliberation which takes place between the parties touching a proposed agreement . . . the deliberation, discussion, or conference on the terms of a proposed agreement; a treating with another with a view to coming to terms .... Negotiations look to the future . . . .” (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Bloomfield Education Assn. v. Frahm, supra, 35 Conn. App. 390.
We conclude that grievance arbitration proceedings, as their binding arbitration counterpart, do involve strategy and negotiations with respect to collective bargaining; Glastonbury Education Assn. v. Freedom of Information Commission, supra, 35 Conn. App. 118-19; and, therefore, are not public meetings within the meaning of the act. Id. Accordingly, we hold that
II
Our inquiry does not end here because the FOIC also claims that the trial court “failed to exercise the judicial restraint required in these cases.” Specifically, the FOIC asserts that the trial court made “extra-record findings of fact”
The judgments are affirmed.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
The defendants in the first action are the FOIC and M. Jeffry Spahr, deputy corporation counsel for the city of Norwalk. The defendants in the second action, are the FOIC, Spahr and Council 4, AFSCME, AFL-CIO, which is the city of Norwalk police union. Only the FOIC has appealed.
The trial court rendered two judgments in which it sustained the administrative appeals brought separately by the state board of mediation and arbitration and the state board of labor relations.
The two appeals brought by the defendant are separate. Because the issues raised are identical, however, the defendant was permitted to file a consolidated brief. We will refer to both appeals in the singular.
General Statutes § l-18a (b) provides in pertinent part: “ ‘Meeting’ means any hearing or other proceeding of a public agency .... ‘Meeting’ shall not include . . . strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining . . . .”
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
General Statutes § 4-176 (a) provides in pertinent part: “Any person may petition an agency ... for a declaratory ruling as to the validity of any regulation, or the applicability to specified circumstances of a provision of the general statutes, a regulation, or a final decision on a matter within the jurisdiction of an agency."
General Statutes § l-18a (a) provides in pertinent part: “ ‘Public agency’ or 'agency' means any executive, administrative or legislative office of the state . . . .”
General Statutes § 1-21 (a) provides in pertinent part,: “(a) The meetings of all public agencies, except executive sessions as defined in subsection (e) of section l-18a, shall be open to the public. . . .”
See footnote 4.
The FOIC asserts that the court made the following findings of fact that are not supported by the record: (1) “stenographic recording is quiet and orderly”; (2) “the record is being compiled by a certified competent reporter unlikely to impair its integrity”; (3) “certified copies can be made readily available without concern for tampering or mistakes”; and (4) “a transcript duly certified is less likely than a recorded taping to raise errors in the transcript of the record.”
Section 31-91-30 of the Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies provides in pertinent part: “The board does not provide a stenographic service during arbitration hearings. If either or both parties feel it is necessary to have their respective arbitration hearings recorded, they should make the necessary arrangements with a private reporting service at their own expense. . .