And she has continued down that path ever since. Winkler represented the 41st district in the state house from 1988 to 2006. In her years in the legislature, almost always as a member of the minority party, Winkler took on the insurance lobby on behalf of coastal residents. She championed the creation of a sexual offender registry. She won awards for legislation she helped craft and push through the legislature involving health care, including a 2001 law governing recommendations by school officials for use of psychotropic drugs for children.

And now, as a member of the FOI Commission, she is continuing to “do the right thing,” sometimes making decisions that anger other public agencies. “Transparency in government is important,” she said. “It has to be in the forefront for all government agencies and when people believe they have been denied access, they need to have a place to go to get help. What we do here is important.” Winkler sees little difference in her role as a nurse or legislator and her role as an FOI Commissioner. It’s all about helping people at every turn.

Her professional career is testimony to that. She graduated from the Norwich Regional Practical Nursing Program in 1976 and worked in the Special Care Nursery at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital for five years, then transferred to the Pequot Health Center emergency room where she worked for 30. She retired from L&M in 2011, then worked in urgent care at the North Stonington Health Center until March, 2012. In the same time period, she began juggling a second career as a public servant. She was a member of the Groton Board of Education when the death of her district’s state representative created an open state house seat. She had joined the board to help further the education of her two daughters and was not registered in any party. But she was asked by the local Republicans to run for the seat. She became a member of the GOP, ran and won…by a whopping 28 votes. She held the seat for 18 years until an unsuccessful bid for the district’s state senate seat in 2010. “I believed in bipartisan legislation,” she said. “I tried to work on coalition budgets. I always worked with the other side of the aisle. The key is relationships with all people.”

Her loss in 2010 eventually took her out of the public arena. There was a bid for lieutenant governor on the 2010 ticket with GOP candidate Tom Foley that failed when her 1991 income tax vote was raised by foes (“It was still the right vote,” she said.) But then she received calls from Republicans and Democrats, including Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, asking her about a vacancy on the FOI Commission. “It sounded interesting, I had had some exposure to the FOI Commission and the law in the legislature, but frankly, not a great deal,” she said. “I knew it was important work, so I put in the paperwork and the Governor put my name in for the position.”

While admitting it was a little strange sitting on the other side of the table during the legislative nominating process, Winkler sailed through with flying colors and became a commissioner in 2013. “I met with Colleen (Murphy, the FOIC’s executive director and general counsel) and she gave a very good introduction into the law and then I read a lot of material to prepare. I also think that sitting on the Judiciary Committee in the legislature gave me good exposure to the handling of legal issues,” she said.

Winkler, who has been married to her husband David for 51 years, said she reads all the cases before the commission meets to issues its rulings and tries to prepare for any possibilities. “I really think we do important work,” she said. “We have a really good commission. I do think we should issue more civil penalties on some of these violations. And I also think people who don’t show up for hearings should be penalized too.”

Because it’s the right thing to do.

From December of 1988 to December, 2001, Hankins served the city of Meriden as legal counsel, first as a staff attorney and, for the last seven years of his tenure, as deputy city attorney. In that capacity, he was called on to advise city departments on filling FOI requests for documents, following FOI protocol for meetings and other FOI matters. Occasionally, Hankins would represent the city in front of the commission should a complaint be filed. He even helped develop a model formula for determining indigence as it applies to FOI requests which, he proudly says, many other jurisdictions now use.

“I never really looked at (FOI) as something adversarial,” Hankins says of his time in Meriden. “Someone wants something and you give it to them. That was my philosophy if we were dealing with public records.”

But then, when he left Meriden to become Legal Counsel for the Connecticut Education Association, he found that some in the public sector didn’t share the philosophy he adopted in Meriden. So he took on another role, that of the complainant, representing the statewide education association before the FOI Commission when it believes it has been improperly denied access to public records or a public meeting.

Talk about seeing both sides. Clearly that made the next step an obvious one. “Yes, for sure I had multiple cases at the commission,” he says. “And then to be asked to be a commissioner was a tremendous honor for someone who had been doing FOI work since 1988. Being a commissioner really allows me to see FOI from all sides.”

The wealth of FOI experience Hankins now brings to the commission is supplemented by some of his other life experiences. After earning a B.A and an M.B.A from the University of Rhode Island, he earned his law degree from the University of Connecticut in 1984 and worked as both an assistant court clerk and private practice attorney before joining the Meriden legal staff. Hankins also served as a member of several boards in East Haddam where he lives and was an attorney arbitrator for four years from 1997 to 2001. Those experiences, he feels, also prepared him for his role as an FOI Commissioner.

“As an arbitrator, I learned how to listen to both sides and from an FOI perspective, having been on both sides of an issue, I think I appreciate the importance of giving both sides a fair shake,” he says. “I think people appreciate that, even if they are unsuccessful. If you are respectful and hear what they have to say, they are satisfied.”

Hankins says that he has drawn a “bright red line” when it comes to cases involving matters related to education. He will not hear any cases involving any teachers or school district he might have to deal with as CEA’s legal counsel. He also recuses himself when such a matter comes before the commission for discussion and a vote.  Although that might be considered difficult or awkward, Hankins says he must remove himself in the name of fairness.

And those recusals haven’t stopped Hankins from becoming a frequent hearing officer in other matters as well as a visible commission member at meetings and other functions.  “Like I said, I was honored to be asked to serve and I really enjoy it,” he says. His new role in the FOI universe is, he says, a culmination of where he felt his career had always taken him.  “It’s an opportunity to help people and by extension, to make sure that government is open and accessible. It’s good for everyone,” he says.  “And I have to say that I have never seen a more dedicated group of public sector employees as I have at the FOI Commission. It’s really a delight to work with them and with my fellow commissioners.”