Gould v. Freedom of Information Commission

Summary

The court held that a teacher-negotiation arbitration panel is not a committee or subunit of the Department of Education and therefore is not a public agency subject to the open-meetings provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. Because the panel was autonomous, composed of independent arbitrators, and neither controlled nor created by the department, the court reversed the trial court's judgment and remanded with directions to sustain the plaintiff's appeal. The court did not reach whether the evidentiary portion of the arbitration hearing independently qualified as a meeting.