“Transparency failures sow distrust in city marred by corruption”

A three-part series by the Hearst Connecticut Media Group exposed the city of Bridgeport’s repeated violations of Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Act. The reporting team of Jacqueline Rabe Thomas, Joshua Eaton and Brian Lockhart revealed the city’s continued and troubling pattern of delaying and stonewalling public records requests. The delays were often caused by understaffed administrative offices, which the city had previously promised to better support.

The city faces a backlog of some 2,000 requests – several of which were filed by the Hearst Connecticut Media Group. The delays are especially troubling in the wake of scandals that rocked Bridgeport in 2003. The current mayor, Joe Ganim, was sentenced to nine years in prison on corruption charges. After serving the majority of his sentence Ganim was once again elected to lead Bridgeport. In 2015, he pledged transparency as he returned to city hall.

The reporters dug into Ganim’s failure to live up to that promise.

Their investigation found that Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Commission had received hundreds of complaints against the city, and that Bridgeport had more violations of public records laws than any other city in the state in the last two years. Reporters reviewed commission hearing transcripts and other audio of city officials who denied interview requests. They utilized public records requests in large cities near Bridgeport to illustrate just how negligent Bridgeport was.

Hours after the series went live, the mayor responded, announcing reforms to address problems the reporters exposed. Soon after that, Connecticut passed legislation to improve public records access statewide. The team continued to follow the issue, and again caught Bridgeport continuing to flout the public records law.

Article by: Leyla Shokoohe