Peters, C. J.
The sole issue in this certified appeal is whether the Appellate Court properly concluded that, in the circumstances of this case, compulsory arbitration proceedings under the Teacher Negotiation Act (TNA); General Statutes § 10-153a et seq.; are exempt from the public meeting requirement of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA); General Statutes §§ l-18a and 1-21;1 because they constitute “strategy or nego[706]*706tiations with respect to collective bargaining.” The complainants, Kathleen Stack and James Hallas, the editor and the publisher of the Glastonbury Citizen newspaper, filed a complaint with the freedom of information commission (FOIC) after Stack had been denied admission to an arbitration proceeding between the plaintiff Glastonbury Education Association (GEA) and the Glastonbury Board of Education (board). The FOIC determined that Stack improperly had been denied access to the arbitration hearing. The plaintiffs, the GEA, the commissioner of education and the arbitrators, appealed from the FOIC decision to the Superior Court pursuant to General Statutes §§ l-21i (b) and 4-183 (a).2 The Superior Court sustained the appeal, [707]*707and the Appellate Court affirmed. Glastonbury Education Assn. v. Freedom of Information Commission, 35 Conn. App. 111, 643 A.2d 1320 (1994). We granted certification to appeal from the judgment of the Appellate Court, limited to the issue: “Do binding interest arbitration proceedings conducted pursuant to General Statutes §§ 10-153a through 10-153n fall within the exemption from public disclosure [for strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining] contained in General Statutes § l-18a (b)?” Glastonbury Education Assn. v. Freedom of Information Commission, 231 Conn. 922, 648 A.2d 162 (1994). Because we conclude that at least part of such a hearing may be closed to the public under the “strategy or negotiations” provision of § l-18a (b), we affirm the judgment of the Appellate Court.3
The record reveals the following facts. After the GE A and the board had failed to reach agreement on a new union contract, compulsory binding arbitration was imposed by the commissioner of the department of education pursuant to General Statutes § 10-153Í.4 On [708]*708December 8, 1990, an arbitration hearing was held to allow each side to present its “last best offer” and evi[709]*709dence and argument in favor of its position. See General Statutes § 10-153Í (c) (2). Stack sought to attend this hearing, but was denied admission by the arbitration panel.
[710]*710Stack and Hallas filed a eomplaint with the FOIC against the board and the arbitration panel.5 After a contested hearing, the FOIC found that although the “purpose of the [arbitration] hearing was to allow the [board] and the [GEA] to each present a ‘last best contract’ offer and to submit evidence and argument on behalf of their positions,” “the parties . . . can negotiate an agreement on their own with respect to any of the disputed issues, prior to the determination of the respondent panel . . . .” The FOIC concluded that “although [such] hearings may and often do lead to further negotiation, the aetual arbitration hearing in this case . . . constituted a meeting within the meaning of $ l-18a (b), which should have been open to the public pursuant to § 1-21 . . . .” The FOIC determined that the hearing must be open unless the GEA, the board and the arbitrators “provefd] . . . that collective bargaining negotiations actually occurred during the hearing in question.” It found that the parties had failed to meet this burden.
The GEA, the commissioner of education and the arbitration panel appealed to the trial court, which sustained their appeal. That court held that, because compulsory arbitration proceedings are a continuation of strategy and negotiations with respect to collective bargaining, they do not constitute “meetings” pursuant to § l-18a (b) and thus they need not be open to the pub-[711]*711lie. On appeal from the trial court, the Appellate Court affirmed the judgment and the reasoning of the trial court. Glastonbury Education Assn. v. Freedom of Information Commission, supra, 35 Conn. App. 118-19. Viewing compulsory arbitration under the TNA as a part of the collective bargaining process, the Appellate Court held that such arbitration is excluded from the definition of “meeting” contained in the FOIA. Id.
The FOIC challenges the Appellate Court’s conclusion that the relationship between compulsory binding arbitration hearings and collective bargaining automatically excludes such hearings in their entirety from the ambit of “meetings” of government agencies that are presumptively open to the public under § 1-21 (a). The statutory exclusion from the open meeting requirement contained in § l-18a (b) provides that “ ‘[mjeeting’ shall not include . . . strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining . ...” In the view of the FOIC, the legislature intended this exclusion to encompass only those aspects of any collective bargaining process, including compulsory binding arbitrations, that directly involve strategy or negotiations. Although we agree with the FOIC in part, on the present record we affirm the judgment of the Appellate Court.
This appeal raises two interrelated issues of statutory construction. What is the scope of the exclusion for collective bargaining contained in § l-18a (b)?6 To what extent are compulsory arbitration proceedings under the TNA properly characterized as collective bargaining and as strategy or negotiations relating thereto?
Inquiry into the scope of the statutory exclusion for collective bargaining contained in § l-18a (b) must com[712]*712menee with the recognition of the legislature’s general commitment to open governmental proceedings. “The overarching legislative policy of the FOIA is one that favors ‘the open conduct of government and free public access to government records.’ ” Perkins v. Freedom of Information Commission, 228 Conn. 158, 166, 635 A.2d 783 (1993), citing Wilson v. Freedom of Information Commission, 181 Conn. 324, 328, 435 A.2d 353 (1980); see also Board of Education v. Freedom of Information Commission, 208 Conn. 442, 450, 545 A.2d 1064 (1988) (“general policy of openness expressed in the FOIA legislation”). The sponsors of the FOIA understood the legislation to express the people’s sovereignty over “the agencies which serve them”; see Wilson v. Freedom of Information Commission, supra, 328, citing 18 H.R. Proc., Pt. 8, 1975 Sess., p. 3911, remarks of Representative Martin Burke; and this court consistently has interpreted that expression to require diligent protection of the public’s right of access to agency proceedings. “Our construction of the [FOIA] must be guided by the policy favoring disclosure and exceptions to disclosure must be narrowly construed.” Gifford v. Freedom of Information Commission, 227 Conn. 641, 651, 631 A.2d 252 (1993);
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Peters, C. J.
The sole issue in this certified appeal is whether the Appellate Court properly concluded that, in the circumstances of this case, compulsory arbitration proceedings under the Teacher Negotiation Act (TNA); General Statutes § 10-153a et seq.; are exempt from the public meeting requirement of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA); General Statutes §§ l-18a and 1-21;1 because they constitute “strategy or nego[706]*706tiations with respect to collective bargaining.” The complainants, Kathleen Stack and James Hallas, the editor and the publisher of the Glastonbury Citizen newspaper, filed a complaint with the freedom of information commission (FOIC) after Stack had been denied admission to an arbitration proceeding between the plaintiff Glastonbury Education Association (GEA) and the Glastonbury Board of Education (board). The FOIC determined that Stack improperly had been denied access to the arbitration hearing. The plaintiffs, the GEA, the commissioner of education and the arbitrators, appealed from the FOIC decision to the Superior Court pursuant to General Statutes §§ l-21i (b) and 4-183 (a).2 The Superior Court sustained the appeal, [707]*707and the Appellate Court affirmed. Glastonbury Education Assn. v. Freedom of Information Commission, 35 Conn. App. 111, 643 A.2d 1320 (1994). We granted certification to appeal from the judgment of the Appellate Court, limited to the issue: “Do binding interest arbitration proceedings conducted pursuant to General Statutes §§ 10-153a through 10-153n fall within the exemption from public disclosure [for strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining] contained in General Statutes § l-18a (b)?” Glastonbury Education Assn. v. Freedom of Information Commission, 231 Conn. 922, 648 A.2d 162 (1994). Because we conclude that at least part of such a hearing may be closed to the public under the “strategy or negotiations” provision of § l-18a (b), we affirm the judgment of the Appellate Court.3
The record reveals the following facts. After the GE A and the board had failed to reach agreement on a new union contract, compulsory binding arbitration was imposed by the commissioner of the department of education pursuant to General Statutes § 10-153Í.4 On [708]*708December 8, 1990, an arbitration hearing was held to allow each side to present its “last best offer” and evi[709]*709dence and argument in favor of its position. See General Statutes § 10-153Í (c) (2). Stack sought to attend this hearing, but was denied admission by the arbitration panel.
[710]*710Stack and Hallas filed a eomplaint with the FOIC against the board and the arbitration panel.5 After a contested hearing, the FOIC found that although the “purpose of the [arbitration] hearing was to allow the [board] and the [GEA] to each present a ‘last best contract’ offer and to submit evidence and argument on behalf of their positions,” “the parties . . . can negotiate an agreement on their own with respect to any of the disputed issues, prior to the determination of the respondent panel . . . .” The FOIC concluded that “although [such] hearings may and often do lead to further negotiation, the aetual arbitration hearing in this case . . . constituted a meeting within the meaning of $ l-18a (b), which should have been open to the public pursuant to § 1-21 . . . .” The FOIC determined that the hearing must be open unless the GEA, the board and the arbitrators “provefd] . . . that collective bargaining negotiations actually occurred during the hearing in question.” It found that the parties had failed to meet this burden.
The GEA, the commissioner of education and the arbitration panel appealed to the trial court, which sustained their appeal. That court held that, because compulsory arbitration proceedings are a continuation of strategy and negotiations with respect to collective bargaining, they do not constitute “meetings” pursuant to § l-18a (b) and thus they need not be open to the pub-[711]*711lie. On appeal from the trial court, the Appellate Court affirmed the judgment and the reasoning of the trial court. Glastonbury Education Assn. v. Freedom of Information Commission, supra, 35 Conn. App. 118-19. Viewing compulsory arbitration under the TNA as a part of the collective bargaining process, the Appellate Court held that such arbitration is excluded from the definition of “meeting” contained in the FOIA. Id.
The FOIC challenges the Appellate Court’s conclusion that the relationship between compulsory binding arbitration hearings and collective bargaining automatically excludes such hearings in their entirety from the ambit of “meetings” of government agencies that are presumptively open to the public under § 1-21 (a). The statutory exclusion from the open meeting requirement contained in § l-18a (b) provides that “ ‘[mjeeting’ shall not include . . . strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining . ...” In the view of the FOIC, the legislature intended this exclusion to encompass only those aspects of any collective bargaining process, including compulsory binding arbitrations, that directly involve strategy or negotiations. Although we agree with the FOIC in part, on the present record we affirm the judgment of the Appellate Court.
This appeal raises two interrelated issues of statutory construction. What is the scope of the exclusion for collective bargaining contained in § l-18a (b)?6 To what extent are compulsory arbitration proceedings under the TNA properly characterized as collective bargaining and as strategy or negotiations relating thereto?
Inquiry into the scope of the statutory exclusion for collective bargaining contained in § l-18a (b) must com[712]*712menee with the recognition of the legislature’s general commitment to open governmental proceedings. “The overarching legislative policy of the FOIA is one that favors ‘the open conduct of government and free public access to government records.’ ” Perkins v. Freedom of Information Commission, 228 Conn. 158, 166, 635 A.2d 783 (1993), citing Wilson v. Freedom of Information Commission, 181 Conn. 324, 328, 435 A.2d 353 (1980); see also Board of Education v. Freedom of Information Commission, 208 Conn. 442, 450, 545 A.2d 1064 (1988) (“general policy of openness expressed in the FOIA legislation”). The sponsors of the FOIA understood the legislation to express the people’s sovereignty over “the agencies which serve them”; see Wilson v. Freedom of Information Commission, supra, 328, citing 18 H.R. Proc., Pt. 8, 1975 Sess., p. 3911, remarks of Representative Martin Burke; and this court consistently has interpreted that expression to require diligent protection of the public’s right of access to agency proceedings. “Our construction of the [FOIA] must be guided by the policy favoring disclosure and exceptions to disclosure must be narrowly construed.” Gifford v. Freedom of Information Commission, 227 Conn. 641, 651, 631 A.2d 252 (1993); Superintendent of Police v. Freedom of Information Commission, 222 Conn. 621, 626, 609 A.2d 998 (1992); see also Kureczka v. Freedom of Information Commission, 228 Conn. 271, 277, 636 A.2d 777 (1994); Ottochian v. Freedom of Information Commission, 221 Conn. 393, 398, 604 A.2d 351 (1992); Rose v. Freedom of Information Commission, 221 Conn. 217, 232, 602 A.2d 1019 (1992); Hartford v. Freedom of Information Commission, 201 Conn. 421, 431, 518 A.2d 49 (1986); Maher v. Freedom of Information Commission, 192 Conn. 310, 315, 472 A.2d 321 (1984); Wilson v. Freedom of Information Commission, supra, 328-29.
In light of these principles, the statutory definition of public meetings contained in § l-18a (b) must be read [713]*713to limit rather than to expand the opportunities for public agencies to hold closed hearings. Accordingly, the language providing that public meetings “shall not include . . . strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining” means, as the FOIC maintains, that what is excluded from the term “meeting” is not all collective bargaining, but only “strategy or negotiations” sessions that relate to collective bargaining. This interpretation accords proper respect for the manifest legislative policy expressed in the FOIA. It also comports with its legislative history, which suggests that the collective bargaining exception was understood to provide privacy for “the give-and-take in negotiating sessions of collective bargaining . . . .” (Emphasis added.) 18 H.R. Proc., supra, p. 3896. Had the legislature intended a broader exclusion, it could have excluded “collective bargaining” without limitation, or it could have excluded “collective bargaining, including but not limited to strategy and negotiations relating thereto.” See Bloomfield Education Assn. v. Frahm, 35 Conn. App. 384, 389, 646 A.2d 247, cert. denied, 231 Conn. 926, 648 A.2d 161 (1994). It chose neither of these options.
Our interpretation of § l-18a (b) finds further support in related provisions of the FOIA that provide limited exceptions to the public disclosure requirement for those portions of proceedings that relate to strategy or negotiations. In § l-18a (e) (2), for example, the legislature authorized a public agency to adjourn a meeting into executive session for “strategy and negotiations with respect to pending claims and litigation” to which the agency itself is a party. Pointedly, the legislature did not adopt a more sweeping approach, such as closing the entire meeting, to achieve its purpose of sheltering specified components of the proceedings from public scrutiny. See Board of Police Commissioners v. Freedom of Information Commission, 192 Conn. 183, 190, 470 A.2d 1209 (1984) (agency’s [714]*714authority under § l-18a [e] [1] to adjourn into executive session for deliberations during proceedings about public employee’s job performance does not include authority to conduct evidentiary portion of proceedings in private). Similarly, the legislature has exempted from public disclosure not all documents relating to collective bargaining, but only “records, reports and statements of strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining.” General Statutes § 1-19 (b) (9). Although the legislature’s narrowly tailored approach to the FOIA exclusions and exemptions may add a layer of complexity to agency administration, the legislature implicitly has decided that the associated costs are outweighed by the benefits derived from open government.
With these principles in mind, we turn to the structure of the TNA. Although TNA arbitrations arise out of an initial failure to reach agreement in ordinary collective bargaining, they were designed to provide incentives for further bargaining between the parties. The TNA establishes a sequence of increasingly formal collective bargaining procedures to ensure the existence of a teacher contract by the beginning of the town’s fiscal year. A board of education and representatives of the teachers’ union have a statutory duty to negotiate concerning salary and other conditions of employment. General Statutes § 10-153d (b). Those negotiations must commence no later than 210 days- prior to the budget submission date for the board. General Statutes § 10-153d (b). If a complete negotiated settlement has not been reached by 160 days prior to the submission date, the statutes mandate that the parties proceed to mediation. General Statutes § 10-153Í (b). Finally, if mediation has not settled all remaining disputes by 135 days prior to the submission date, the statute imposes mandatory last best offer arbitration.7 [715]*715General Statutes § 10-153f (c) (1). After a hearing at which each party may present all relevant evidence, the arbitral panel “shall resolve separately each individual disputed issue by accepting the last best offer thereon of either of the parties. . . .” General Statutes § 10-153Í (c) (4). The arbitral panel also is required to include in its decision any agreements previously arrived at by the parties. General Statutes § 10-153Í (c) (4).
The issue raised by this three-step collective bargaining process is how to fit the process into the open meetings provisions of the FOIA. The various steps contemplated by the TNA could be construed as establishing a structural division between “negotiation,” which occurs at step one, and “arbitration,” which occurs at step three and occurs only if both negotiation and mediation have failed to result in a contract. Such a construction of the TNA would not comport, however, with the underlying realities of the TNA process.
The TNA contemplates arbitration proceedings that interface with collective bargaining between the parties and collective bargaining’s attendant “strategy and negotiations.” The TNA permits the arbitration proceedings to be continued, at the discretion of the arbitrators, provided that the arbitration hearing concludes within twenty-five days after its commencement. General Statutes § 10-153Í (c) (3). The apparent purpose of this provision is to afford the parties an opportunity to pursue further negotiations on their own even after compulsory arbitration has commenced, if the arbitration panel believes that such negotiations could prove fruitful. Even when not formally recessed for “negotiations,” the arbitration hearing itself contains elements of strategy and negotiations.
Uncontradicted evidence in the record before the FOIC documents that a TNA arbitration does not oper[716]*716ate as a typical quasi-judicial process, but rather as a stylized or ritualized mediated negotiation process in which the parties submit initial last best offers, interim last best offers and final last best offers. Throughout the process, the threat of the arbitration panel’s decision-making power provides a strong incentive for the parties to resolve outstanding issues.8 Testimony before the FOIC in this case indicated that the arbitrators “don’t receive the parties’ absolute final position until the very end of the hearing and the parties often and usually present a different position when they open the hearing . . . .”
This description comports with the general understanding of how compulsory binding interest arbitration hearings are usually conducted. One outside commentator has observed that the theory undergirding last best offer arbitration is that “the logic of the procedure would force negotiating parties to continue moving closer together in search of a position that would be most likely to receive neutral sympathy. . . . Flexible procedures of this kind, clearly designed to encourage voluntary settlements prior to, during and even after the completion of the hearing, are obviously a. hybrid of mediation and arbitration. . . . Flexible final-offer procedures . . . almost inevitably result in a proceeding which is known as mediation-arbitration, often called simply ‘med-arb’. . . . Ordinary interest arbitration is normally a somewhat judicial procedure in which the neutral [arbitrator] takes evidence and then drafts the parties’ ‘agreement’ in the loneliness of his own study. In med-arb [however] the neutral [717]*717[arbitrator] customarily works out solutions in the presence of and with input from the parties.” C. Rehmus, “Interest Arbitration,” in Portrait of a Process: Collective Negotiations in Public Employment (1979) pp. 218-20. As we held recently in interpreting similar provisions of the Municipal Employees Relations Act, by requiring the arbitrators to accept revised last best offers, binding arbitration procedures facilitate further collective bargaining between the parties. International Brotherhood of Police Officers, Local 564 v. Jewett City, 234 Conn. 123, 133-34, 661 A.2d 573 (1995).
These operational characteristics of compulsory arbitration under the TNA persuade us that the actual presentation of last best offers by the parties sufficiently resembles “negotiations,” despite the fact that they occur during a proceeding denominated as “arbitration,” to be excluded from the “meeting” requirements of the FOIA. Because the FOIC order in this case determined that Stack should have been permitted to attend the entire arbitration hearing, and ordered that similar hearings in the future likewise be open to the public in their entirety, the FOIC’s unconditional order was improper as a matter of law.
We note that the TNA permits each party, in its presentations to the arbitral board, “to submit all relevant evidence, to introduce relevant documents and written material, and to argue on behalf of its” last best offer. General Statutes § 10-153Í (c) (2). In aid of this evidentiary process, the arbitrators have the “power to administer oaths and affirmations and to issue subpoenas requiring the attendance of witnesses.” General Statutes § 31-108; see General Statutes § 10-153f (d). Thus, the arbitration hearing also provides an opportunity for the parties to create an evidentiary record on which the arbitrators can rely in making their final [718]*718determination of any issues left unresolved.9 Since we already have concluded that the FOIC order at issue here cannot stand, we postpone to another day questions concerning the validity of a more narrowly tailored FOIC order that requires open hearings only with respect to evidentiary presentations and permits executive sessions for discussion and argument about the contents of the parties’ last best offers.
The judgment of the Appellate Court is affirmed.
In this opinion Callahan and Palmer, Js., concurred.