The above-captioned matter was scheduled to be heard as a contested case on January 25, 2013. 

     On January 24, 2013, the parties filed a series of emails which together constituted a stipulation and withdrawal of the complaint. Based upon these filings, the hearing officer granted the parties’ motion not to attend the January 25, 2013 hearing. The parties’ stipulation required a memorandum by the respondent to be read into the record at the hearing, which was conducted briefly for this purpose on January 25, 2013. The Memorandum stated the following:

          TO: City Attorney Staff

          FROM: Arthur C. Laske III
          Deputy City Attorney

          RE: FOI Responses

          In order to alleviate any unnecessary delay in providing requested information pursuant to FOI requests, the following steps should be taken, whenever appropriate:

          1.  When an FOI request seeks documents and certain documents falling within the request can be obtained and released before others, those documents that can be obtained sooner than others should be released when they are obtained. Documents that are responsive but cannot be obtained until a later time should be disclosed when they are available. In so doing, we will be providing responsive documents when they are made available, and we will not wait until all the responsive documents are made available before the request is complied with. The purpose of this process is to prevent any delay in the release of responsive documents that have been obtained while other documents that are not yet available are being gathered.

          2.  When partial compliance to an FOI request is made, we should update the requestor as to the status of the remaining documents sought, and if possible indicate the extent of any further expected delay in the production of documents.

          I appreciate your assistance in implementing these steps to prevent any unnecessary delay in responding to the production of documents pursuant to FOI.

          Thank you.

          ACL

     Upon determining that the matters in this case were uncontested, the hearing officer accepted the stipulation and withdrawal in full resolution of the complaint.

     Based on the foregoing, no further order is deemed necessary.

Approved by Order of the Freedom of Information Commission at its regular meeting of February 27, 2013.

__________________________
Cynthia A. Cannata
Acting Clerk of the Commission

PURSUANT TO SECTION 4-180(c), G.S., THE FOLLOWING ARE THE NAMES OF EACH PARTY AND THE MOST RECENT MAILING ADDRESS, PROVIDED TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION COMMISSION, OF THE PARTIES OR THEIR AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE.

THE PARTIES TO THIS CONTESTED CASE ARE:

David McGuire and the
American Civil Liberties Union
c/o Sandra J. Staub, Esq. and
David McGuire, Esq.
330 Main Street
First Floor
Hartford, CT  06106

City Council, City of Bridgeport;
and City of Bridgeport
c/o Gregory M. Conte, Esq.
Bridgeport City Attorney’s Office
999 Broad Street
Bridgeport, CT  06604

____________________________
Cynthia A. Cannata
Acting Clerk of the Commission

FIC/2012-416/FD/cac/2/27/2013