Requires all agencies to submit to the committee on open government a log of all freedom of information law requests for each year in which they received or have pending a request for records; requires the committee on open government to publish, on one webpage, all freedom of information law request logs it receives.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A9621
SPONSOR: McDonald TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public officers law, in relation to requiring agen-
cies to report information about FOIL inquiries to the committee on open
government
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To require agencies subject to the public officers law to report to the
committee on open government information about FOIL inquiries and agency
responses
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Subdivision 1 of section 1 adds a new section 90 to the public officers
law requiring that agencies submit to the committee on open government a
log of freedom of information law requests for every year that those
agencies have received or have pending such requests, and enumerates the
content and format of such logs. Subdivision 2 directs the committee on
open government to publish the FOIL request logs it receives in
machine-readable format. Subdivision 3 requires the committee on open
government to provide in its annual report the total number of FOIL logs
submitted by agencies pursuant to the new section 90.
Section 2 is the effective date, which is the ninetieth day after the
bill shall have become law.
JUSTIFICATION:
Since 1974, New York's Freedom of Information Law has allowed the public
to access a myriad of public documents and records, shining light on
what can be obscure or complicated government processes and decision-
making. Like its federal counterpart, New York's FOIL requests are a key
tool for the press, the public, and advocates to hold state --- and
local --- government's accountable to New Yorkers. Though FOIL is a
crucial asset for transparent government in New York, we have little
understanding of the full extent of its utilization. Agencies subject
to New York's public officers law are not required to report to the
legislature or to the public information about how many FOIL requests
are received, for what information, and how such requests are responded
to.
This bill would require all state and local agencies subject to the
public officers law to report basic information about their FOIL request
receipts and responses to the committee on open government, and tasks
the committee with making such information available to the public.
Agencies that did not have any new or pending FOIL requests in any given
year are not required to report. In finally collecting and publishing
data about utilization of and compliance under FOIL, this bill would
increase government transparency and accountability.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
9621
IN ASSEMBLY
March 26, 2024
___________
Introduced by M. of A. McDONALD -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Governmental Operations
AN ACT to amend the public officers law, in relation to requiring agen-
cies to report information about FOIL inquiries to the committee on
open government
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 90 of the public officers law is renumbered section
2 90-a and a new section 90 is added to read as follows:
3 § 90. FOIL request reporting. 1. All agencies subject to this article
4 shall, for each year in which they received or have pending a request
5 for records under this article, submit to the committee on open govern-
6 ment their log of all such freedom of information law requests. For the
7 purposes of this section, pending shall mean requests that remained open
8 during the twelve-month period, including those first submitted in prior
9 years. The freedom of information law request logs shall:
10 (a) cover a twelve-month range of dates as prescribed by the committee
11 on open government and shall include data regarding all requests
12 received or pending during that range of dates;
13 (b) be submitted on a schedule prescribed by the committee on open
14 government;
15 (c) be in a machine-readable, tabular spreadsheet format prescribed by
16 the committee on open government, including but not limited to the order
17 of the data fields included;
18 (d) be submitted in a method as prescribed by the committee on open
19 government, such as by electronic mail, web form, web portal, or other
20 method as prescribed by the committee;
21 (e) include data prescribed and defined by the committee on open
22 government, but at the minimum including:
23 (i) the name of the requestor;
24 (ii) the affiliation of the employer of the requestor with the agency,
25 if applicable;
26 (iii) the date of receipt of the request;
27 (iv) the date of acknowledgment by the agency of the request;
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD14610-01-4
A. 9621 2
1 (v) the date of the expected response time as provided in the acknowl-
2 edgment;
3 (vi) the number of extensions of time to respond to date;
4 (vii) the date of the final response or of the closure of the request,
5 if applicable;
6 (viii) whether the request was granted in whole; granted in part and
7 denied in part; or denied;
8 (ix) if the request was denied in whole or in part, a list of
9 exemptions cited in the final response, if applicable;
10 (x) if the request was denied in whole or in part, whether the agency
11 determined there were no responsive records;
12 (xi) the date an appeal of the final response was filed, or whether no
13 appeal was filed;
14 (xii) the status of any appeals, including whether the appeal was:
15 (A) not filed;
16 (B) filed and pending;
17 (C) filed and granted in whole;
18 (D) filed and granted in part and denied in part; or
19 (E) filed and denied;
20 (xiii) a list of exemptions cited in an appeal denial, if applicable;
21 (xiv) the amount, in dollars, of total fees collected from requestor;
22 (xv) how many documents were produced;
23 (xvi) how many pages were produced;
24 (xvii) whether any of the produced documents were redacted;
25 (xviii) whether the request was subject to a proceeding filed under
26 article seventy-eight of the civil practice law and rules, and if so:
27 (A) the result, including judgment for petitioner; judgment for
28 respondent; or settlement;
29 (B) the date of the final judgment, whether it be a final judgment or
30 stipulation of dismissal pursuant to a settlement;
31 (C) the amount of attorney fees assessed by the court to be paid by
32 the agency, if any; and
33 (D) whether the article seventy-eight judgment was appealed, and the
34 date of the appeal; and
35 (f) be published on the agency's website, if the agency has one.
36 2. By January first of each year, the committee on open government
37 shall publish, on one webpage, all freedom of information law request
38 logs it receives, in a machine-readable format such as a spreadsheet or
39 comma separated variable file, in addition to any other format it shall
40 determine. The committee shall additionally publish and maintain an
41 archive of such logs on data.ny.gov or such other successor website
42 maintained by, or on behalf of, the state, as deemed appropriate by the
43 office of information technology services under executive order 95 of
44 2013, or any successor agency or order.
45 3. The committee on open government shall at a minimum provide, in its
46 annual report required by section eighty-nine of this article, the total
47 number of FOIL logs submitted by agencies pursuant to this section, and
48 the committee shall further be authorized to analyze the data in the
49 freedom of information law request logs and use such data and analyses
50 thereof in such annual report or other reports or analyses.
51 § 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
52 have become a law.
