Assemblymember Brindisi Supports Measures Making Government More Accountable and Transparent

March 14, 2012

Assemblymember Anthony J. Brindisi (D-Utica) announced that a package of legislation intended to increase the accountability of state and local governments passed in the Assembly, helping to provide greater transparency for government practices.

“I supported these bills because it’s important that we make state and local governments accountable to the people,” Assemblymember Brindisi said. “We must do all we can to help restore the public’s trust in their government.”

The Assembly’s legislation would:

• bar government agencies from inappropriately using the copyright law to deny access to a public record (A.6787);
• limit the time in which state agencies would have to appeal court decisions that order the release of documents as required by FOIL (A.68);
• require entities that are exempt from disclosure under FOIL – in order to protect trade secrets – and who submit records to state agencies to periodically re-apply for the exemption (A.9022); and
• establish an inventory and audit process, administered by the commissioner of the Office for General Services, to document every parcel of real property that has been sold by the state and that is subject to a written clause (A.9112).

The Sunshine Week package also includes a bill passed by the Assembly that would increase the access and availability of records involved in a judicial proceeding, making them available to the public and media outlets if there is no risk the disclosure would disrupt the proceedings (A.9460). The bill would permit access to records that are held by law enforcement officials or are related to ongoing proceedings if it has been determined that no interference with the investigation would occur, Assemblymember Brindisi noted.

Sunshine Week is a national, bipartisan commemoration that stresses the importance of open government and freedom of information.

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