US Towns scrap Web sites to avoid FOI mandate

Towns scrap Web sites to avoid FOI mandate

A new law that requires towns to post meeting minutes on the Internet is causing at least two Litchfield County communities to shut down their Web sites.

New Hartford First Selectman Earl R. MacInnes Thursday ordered his town's municipal Web site closed, a day after neighboring Harwinton's Board of Selectmen voted to shutter theirs.

The new state law, which was passed by the General Assembly in June and went into effect Wednesday, forces town boards and commissions to post meeting minutes on their municipal Web sites within seven days of holding a meeting in order to comply with the state's Freedom of Information Act. Towns without Web sites are exempt from the law.

http://www.rep-am.com/News/369758.txt