According to the article, the city has fallen into a pattern of delaying and stonewalling requests for public records – routinely in violation of state law.
by 290 
Feb. 9, 2023
BRIDGEPORT – A new Hearst Media investigation published today, written by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas, Joshua Eaton, and Brian Lockhart, reveals that “despite pledges from Mayor Joe Ganim to improve transparency, Connecticut’s most populous city has fallen into a pattern of delaying and stonewalling requests for public records — routinely in violation of state law, a Hearst Connecticut Media investigation found.“
For years, even as the number of requests filed under the state’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) surged, Ganim’s administration has devoted minimal resources — often just one or two staff members with other duties — to process them.
City leaders have inexplicably abandoned their own proposals to speed up the process while instituting questionable practices — including funneling requests through a centralized, understaffed office — that defy their own recommendations for improvement.
The repeated failures have sowed further distrust among residents of a city marred by corruption scandals, including a criminal kickback scheme that landed Ganim in prison in 2003 and prompted him to promise to make city government more open and accountable to the public when he returned to office in 2015.
“In Bridgeport, waiting years for public records while officials break transparency laws,” Jacqueline Rabe Thomas, Joshua Eaton, Brian Lockhart, Feb. 9, 2023, Connecticut Post
The investigation encompasses multiple angles of this failure by Ganim’s administration to uphold and comply with the law, including sections on their “excuses” for the delays, Ganim’s broken promises, and a comparison of Bridgeport to Hartford.
The investigation is part of a three-part series by Hearst Media. The second article brings to light the frustration and pain of the families of Lauren Smith-Fields and Brenda Lee Rawls, two Black women in Bridgeport who died on the same day in December 2021, and how they are are still waiting for answers.
Bridgeport police ‘told us to stop calling,’ says Smith-Fields’ mother.
“Two women died on the same day in Bridgeport, and their families are still waiting for answers,” Jacqueline Rabe Thomas, Joshua Eaton, Brian Lockhart, Feb. 9, 2023, Connecticut Post
The final article is focused on Bridgeport ignores scoldings, warnings and orders from the state’s Freedom of Information Commission (FOIC) and how Bridgeport’s routine violation of state law is testing a public watchdog’s power to rein in agencies that ignore residents’ records requests.
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