🔒Gillett FOI showdown pushed to July

A legal showdown between former Public Utilities Regulatory Authority Chair Marissa Gillett and the state Freedom of Information Commission will play out this summer, after a judge gave the commission six additional weeks to file a motion to dismiss her appeal. At stake is whether Gillett can be held personally liable for her former agency’s failure to turn over records sought by Eversource Energy under the state Freedom of Information Act. Gillett, who resigned as chair of the PURA last October, is challenging a December ruling that found PURA did not conduct a reasonable and diligent search for the records and that she, as the agency’s top official, was directly responsible for the denial. Judge Matthew Budzik signed the extension Wednesday in New Britain Superior Court, pushing the FOI Commission’s deadline from June 1 to July 15. Under the revised schedule, Gillett’s response is due Aug. 17 and the commission’s reply Aug. 31. She is suing the commission to vacate the December ruling, which ordered her to personally pay a $2,500 civil penalty, doubled from the $1,000 a hearing officer initially recommended. Her lawsuit, filed in January by Alexander Copp of Trumbull-based Omnia Law, argues that the commission improperly took administrative notice of news reports and findings from separate utility litigation, that PURA’s search was reasonable and that the agency’s general counsel, Scott Muska, not Gillett, managed the FOI response. Gillett herself is a licensed attorney. The FOI Commission, represented by Commission Counsel Valicia Dee Harmon, told the court it needed more time because the agency is short-staffed, with two attorney positions vacant, a third lawyer departing, and Harmon juggling a heavy caseload, along with a separate appellate brief due in mid-June. Thomas J. Murphy of Hartford-based Cowdery, Murphy & Healy, who represents Eversource, did not object to the extension. Copp did. The records dispute stems from a 20-part FOI request that Eversource filed in November 2024 seeking internal directives and emails about how Gillett managed dockets, commissioners and staff. It came during a stretch when Eversource CEO Joe Nolan was publicly critical of PURA’s leadership while the company challenged the authority's rate decisions in court. Gillett’s appeal describes the FOI ruling as validating Eversource’s “persistent lawfare against the agency charged with safeguarding Connecticut consumers.” Two Avangrid subsidiaries, Connecticut Natural Gas and Southern Connecticut Gas, won remands of their rate cases last November after Budzik, the same judge now hearing the Gillett appeal, found she had violated the law in conducting the proceedings and “prejudiced the substantial rights of the plaintiffs.” Budzik also referred Muska and a state assistant attorney general to the Statewide Grievance Committee over their handling of those cases.