People love to turn public-records requests into morality plays. Who’s guilty. Who crossed a line. Who should be embarrassed. That’s not what this is. This PRR exists for one reason only: to test whether the City governs by process, or by vibes. Not people. Not personalities. Process. What We Know (and What We Don’t) From the records already produced, we …
And why confusing the two costs you leverage One of the most common mistakes people make is treating a Public Records Request (PRR) like it’s discovery-lite. It isn’t. Discovery is a court-controlled process. Public records is a constitutional obligation. That distinction is not academic. It’s structural. And it determines who has leverage. Discovery: answers on their terms Discovery happens after …
New Britain City Hall Flag Policy: Records Request to Test Enforcement Why This Matters Public-forum law doesn’t live in press releases or policy PDFs. It lives in how a policy is actually enforced. If a city claims neutrality, equal access, or content-neutral administration, that claim is only as good as the records created when real requests are handled. This post …
How to Break a City’s Flag Policy (Legally) Using FOI A Case Study from New Britain, Connecticut Cities love free speech—until it gets uncomfortable. New Britain raised a Christian flag over City Hall. When I requested to raise a different flag, the city didn’t debate theology or law. It reached for bureaucracy: resident-only rules, “no controversial flags”, and public safety …
This isn’t about tone. Definitely not about personalities. It’s about sequence. Timing. And what ends up in the file when the meeting is over. At the last meeting (January 20, 2026), Commissioner Shinitsky, aka Proffer Shitsky of District #3, voted to stay with BSO. That motion failed, 3–2. No ambiguity there. Minutes later—same meeting, same issue—he votes to leave BSO. …
