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Several small towns have shut down their websites in response to a new law that requires them to be more transparent in their record-keeping.

The towns now want the state's Freedom of Information Commission to weigh in.

Bart Russell is the Executive Director of Connecticut's Council of Small Towns.

His group wants the state's FOI Commission to issue an advisory opinion on the law that went into effect Wednesday that requires municipalities to post information from public meetings on the Internet.

Under the new law, meeting agendas must be up twenty-four hours in advance and minutes posted within seven days after a meeting.  Russell says the towns want to be transparent but the time constraints aren't reasonable.

"It's one thing to do it manually that is type up a notice and file it with the clerk for smaller municpalities who have volunteer webmasters perhaps have their websites hosted as companion sites on other websites which is what towns often do.  It is impossible for them to meet this stringent deadline."

He also disputes the idea that uploading a word document or pdf file to a website should be an easy task.

"I don't know how many average citizens know how to do that, it may be that younger, more technologically informed people do."

Several towns including Lyme, Salem, Colbrook, and Harwinton have taken their websites down because they don't want residents to file complaints with the FOI Commission if the documents aren't up in the time period that the law requires.

Tom Hennick is the spokesman for the FOI Commission. Hennick says its Executive Director has reached out to the Governor's office to work on a resolution.

Hennick adds, the concept behind the law makes sense because it's the electronic age but the details need to be worked out.