Wilson FOI Results: Transparency? Not Really.

Over a month ago Republican Town Committee Vice Chair William Wilson sent an FOI request to the City of Middletown asking for answers to a variety of public information questions. His letter was sent on December 18, 2012. On January 4th, 2013 the Insider asked readers to help out by sending in copies of the same letter to try and get answers. By law, the only documents that fall under FOI are those already created, however, the fact that the answers to some of the questions below have no existing documentation by the Water Department is  troubling fact in itself! Only a receipt was provided for the plane ticket to China, no report as promised or itinerary from Mayor Drew Director Guy Russo of the Water & Sewer Department finally answered a few of the questions Wilson proposed on January 13, 2012, over 30 days later. By law, a response must be given in 4 days as to status. The memo was dated on Dec. 21, but was not emailed from the City until January 13 due to an"internal glitch", however it still shows that according to the email trail, Director Russo did not respond to the Town Clerk,who followed proper procedure, until January 11..  No word on the existing report that cost the City $10K in April of 2012 but never presented to the Council, that was conducted by an outside investigation team to determine why the department was loosing money so rapidly. This was mentioned in greater detail by the Letter to the Editor by John Milardo: His Town

Wilson's Original Letter and list of questions can be found here:
http://www.middletowninsider.com/2013/01/we-need-your-help.html

On Fri, 1/11/13, Russo-Driska, Sandra MiddletownCT.gov> wrote:

From: Russo-Driska, Sandra

MiddletownCT.gov>
Subject: FW: FOI Reuest - William Wilson
To: "'William wilson'"
Cc: "Russo, Guy"
Date: Friday, January 11, 2013, 4:14 PM

Bill,

This was apparently sent via interoffice email, however, due to an apparent glitch at our end, I do not have it in my FOI folder, sent box, or deleted box.  I apologize.  Here is Director Russo's response to your FOI request.

Let me know if you need further assistance.

Sandra Russo-Driska
Town Clerk

__________________________________________

From: Russo, Guy
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2013 4:09 PM
To: Russo-Driska, Sandra
Cc: DeSena, Linda
Subject: FW: FOI Reuest - William Wilson

Memo: Original here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1OYjxtLEgUwMFJNck10b01SeFU/edit
To: Sandra Driska-Russo, City and Town Clerk

From: Guy P. Russo, Director of Water & Sewer

Date: December 21, 2012

Re: William Wilson, FOI Request of December 18, 2012

Please note that in response to item numbers 1 – 4 of the subject FOI Request, that the Water & Sewer Department Offers the following:

1.How many discharges from the sewer treatment located at 100 River Road have there been in the last 5 years?  How many gallons per discharge into the Connecticut River during that time? Please provide any DEP reports of spillage & discharge for the last 5 years.
1) The Water and Sewer Department has a total of 219 pages of paper reports filed with DEEP (nee DEP) addressing this information request. We request prepayment of reproduction costs at the rate of $0.50/page, for a total of $109.50. Please advise if this is acceptable to the requester, and if so when prepayment has been received by your office, and we will provide the copies. Please advise.

2. Please provide me the relevant reports to disclose any and all spills into the Connecticut River stemming from Middletown's sewage treatment plant and relevant systems dating back five years. Have there been any other spills as documented by the City of Middletown into the Connecticut river where sewage has been discharged or overflowed? Please provide any and all  bypass reports.
2)  The Water and Sewer Department has a total of 9 pages of paper reports filed with DEEP (nee DEP) addressing this information request. We request prepayment of reproduction costs at the rate of $0.50/page, for a total of $4.50. Please advise if this is acceptable to the requester, and if so when prepayment has been received by your office, and we will provide the copies. Please advise.

3. Please provide documentation to answer the following question: Have there been any fines due to discharges or spills during the past five years to the Water and Sewer department? If so, when, why and for what amount?
3)  The Water and Sewer Department has no documents responsive to this request.

4.Please provide information regarding billing oversight at the Water & Sewer department. How many billing complaints have been filed in the past five years? How many customers have been misbilled? Please provide a record of this and the remedy.
4)  With regards to this inquiry, I request that Mr. Wilson be asked for specifics as I am not sure what more specific documents/reports he is looking for. If there are specific reports or documents, I will then be able to adequately respond. Additionally, some of this request would involve the creation of documents/reports that do not exist. Please inquire of Mr. Wilson as to how he would like to proceed.

Cc: Mayor Daniel Drew Timothy Lynch, City Attorney