Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim has responded to complaints that his administration deliberately suppressed and delayed Freedom of Information Act requests for the past seven years.
He’s directed changes to the way such requests are handled.
Ganim’s administration delayed Freedom of Information requests by funneling them through an understaffed office, according to a series of articles by Hearst Connecticut Media.
The mayor has now authorized that new FOIA requests be submitted to and processed by the relevant city department with custody of the records.
“It should not take a three-part investigative story by Hearst Media to force the Gamin administration to govern and manage the city properly,’ said Ganim critic Callie Heilmann of the advocacy group Bridgeport Generation Now Votes.
"The new program that the mayor is articulating simply sounds like what the city should have been doing for the past seven years,” she added.
The FOIA controversy is one of several the mayor is facing as he seeks reelection to a third consecutive term in office this year.
