Mitchell Pearlman served as the first executive director of the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission when it was founded in 1975, retiring in 2005. Known as an expert on open government laws and transparency, Pearlman has traveled across the globe giving lectures on FOI and authored the book “Piercing the Veil of Secrecy,” sharing insights from his life’s work in Freedom of Information. Pearlman also taught journalism law at the University of Connecticut for 17 years. Pearlman currently serves on the boards of the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information and the Connecticut Foundation for Open Government, which named its Freedom of Information Award after him.
Interview by Ben Martin SCSU JRN ‘25. Answers have been condensed and edited.
What was the creation of the Freedom of Information Act like in Connecticut?
Well, a campaign to pass a Freedom of Information Act in Connecticut started in 1955. A newspaper reporter for the Waterbury Republican American went to a board of education meeting. And during the meeting, they were taking up a hot topic in the community. The reporter for the newspaper was allowed in, but citizens were not allowed. When the editors of the newspaper found out, they started a campaign, which was joined by the Connecticut Daily Newspaper Association, to pass an open meetings, open government, open records law in Connecticut. It took 20 years to accomplish that. So in 1974, Ella T. Grasso ran for governor, and she made it part of her platform to pass a freedom of information law.
Well, every year the news industry brought the freedom of information legislation to the capitol. And every year it was defeated because it was sent to the Judiciary Committee, which was largely comprised of lawyers. And lawyers, at that time, didn’t like the Freedom of Information Act. So, Ella Grasso and the Democratic leadership of the legislature changed the committee to the Government Administration Committee. And so it passed that committee, finally got to a vote in the House and the Senate, and interestingly enough, the bill passed, unanimously.
What is the FOI Commission in Connecticut, and what does it do?
The key thing about the commission is that it was the first government Freedom of Information agency in the whole world. Not only the United States, the whole world. So, in most places, to effectuate a person’s rights under the Freedom of Information Act, one has to hire a lawyer and go to court, which takes typically one or more years. With the commission, everything is supposed to be resolved within a year. It typically is, and there’s no need to hire a lawyer.
Do you have a specific FOIA complaint or hearing that stands out to you?
This was involving the city of Bridgeport; somebody had asked for copies of invoices. They wanted to see how the city’s money was being spent and for what? So, they made a request for invoices. Clearly a public record.
At the meeting where the commission was going to ultimately decide the case, finding an obvious violation of the law, the city attorney showed up, and, he was asked, “Do you have any defense? The commission doesn’t understand why you would not give out a clearly public record.” He explained, “We don’t have the invoices.”
How can you not have invoices if you write checks to people? It’s business operations 101. You have to have something in writing to show what you’re paying for. Otherwise, you can write checks to anybody and for anything and nobody would know. And his answer to that question was very telling. He says, “Because it’s the city of Bridgeport.”
They were going to do things the way they were going to do things, and if they were going to get fined for it, so be it. They didn’t care.
What is the importance of FOI?
It’s premised on the notion that the public has the right to know what its government officials and government agencies are doing. In Connecticut the FOIA law requires open meetings of all government agencies and requires disclosure of most government records, with certain enumerated exceptions.
Just like the rest of society, there are some terrific, wonderful people in government who do good work. And there are some who don’t. That’s always been the case.
And so as long as that is the reality, there is the need for oversight of government by the people or through mechanisms such as the Freedom of Information Commission to ensure that the rights of individual citizens are effectuated.
The bedrock of democracy is accountability. And that’s what the commission is designed to do. That’s what these laws are designed to do.
