House Republican Minority Leader Themis Klarides, whose district includes parts of Orange, is agreeing with open government groups that the panel formed by Gov. Ned Lamont to advise him on reopening Connecticut should be subject to freedom of information law.
Lamont has said the 47-member Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group, which consists of members of various academic, scientific, business and labor communities, needs to be able to respond quickly the pandemic. He created the independent panel so that it could be exempt from requirements like open records laws.
But Klarides, along with the right-leaning Yankee Institute for Public Policy, say shielding such important decision-making processes from the public is counterproductive and insulting to state residents.
“Unless Connecticut residents have confidence that its leaders are open and up front about what they are doing in what should be a truly public process, they will be skeptical about the outcomes,” Klarides said.
State lawmakers were effectively shut out of the panel, as any deliberations they would take part in would, by law, be subject to regulation around freedom of information.