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A00119 Summary:

A00119 Actions:

A00119 Committee Votes:

Committee:GOVERNMENTAL OPERATIONS   Chair:Titus      
DATE:05/21/2019AYE/NAY:14/0  Action: Favorable         
Titus
Aye
Johns
Aye
Galef
Aye
Goodell
Aye
Glick
Aye
Lalor
Aye
Kim
Aye
Byrne
Aye
Buchwald
Aye
Bichotte
Aye
Blake
Aye
Hyndman
Aye
Williams
Aye
Epstein
Aye

A00119 Floor Votes:

A00119 Text:

 
                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                         119--B
                                                                  Cal. No. 4
 
                               2019-2020 Regular Sessions
 
                   IN ASSEMBLY
 
                                       (Prefiled)
 
                                     January 9, 2019
                                       ___________
 
        Introduced  by  M. of A. BUCHWALD, GALEF, PAULIN, GOTTFRIED -- read once
          and referred to the Committee on Governmental Operations --  committee
          discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted
          to  said  committee -- ordered to a third reading, amended and ordered
          reprinted, retaining its place on the order of third reading
 
        AN ACT to amend the  public  officers  law,  in  relation  to  accessing
          records under the freedom of information law
 
          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:
 
     1    Section 1. Subparagraph iii of paragraph  (b)  of  subdivision  2  and
     2  subdivision 3 of section 89 of the public officers law, subparagraph iii
     3  of paragraph (b) of subdivision 2 as amended by section 2 of part GGG of
     4  chapter  59 of the laws of 2019, subdivision 3 as amended by chapter 223
     5  of the laws of 2008 and paragraph (c) of subdivision 3 as added by chap-
     6  ter 47 of the laws of 2018, are amended to read as follows:
     7    iii. sale or release of lists of names of natural persons and residen-
     8  tial addresses if such lists would be used  for  solicitation  or  fund-
     9  raising purposes;
    10    3.  (a)  Each entity subject to the provisions of this article, within
    11  five business days of the receipt of a  written  request  for  a  record
    12  reasonably  described,  shall  make  such record available to the person
    13  requesting it, deny  such  request  in  writing  or  furnish  a  written
    14  acknowledgement  of  the  receipt of such request and a statement of the
    15  approximate date, which shall be reasonable under the  circumstances  of
    16  the  request,  when  [such request will be granted or denied] a response
    17  will be given, including, where appropriate, a statement that access  to
    18  the  record  will  be  determined in accordance with subdivision five of
    19  this section.
    20    (b) An agency shall not deny a request on the basis that  the  request
    21  is  voluminous  or  that locating, generating or reviewing the requested
 
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD01195-05-0
        A. 119--B                           2
 
     1  record or records  or  providing  the  requested  copies  is  burdensome
     2  because  the  agency  lacks sufficient staffing or on any other basis if
     3  the agency may engage an outside professional service to  provide  copy-
     4  ing,  programming  or  other  services required to provide the copy, the
     5  costs of which the agency may  recover  pursuant  to  paragraph  (c)  of
     6  subdivision one of section eighty-seven of this article.
     7    (c)  An  agency  may  require  a  person requesting lists of names and
     8  addresses to provide a written certification that such person  will  not
     9  use such lists of names of natural persons and residential addresses for
    10  solicitation  or fund-raising purposes and will not sell, give or other-
    11  wise make available such lists of  names  and  addresses  to  any  other
    12  person  for  the  purpose  of  allowing that person to use such lists of
    13  names and addresses for solicitation or fund-raising purposes.
    14    (d) If [an agency determines to grant a request in whole or  in  part,
    15  and  if]  circumstances  prevent  an  agency  from  notifying the person
    16  requesting the record or records of the agency's determination regarding
    17  the rights of access and disclosure to the person requesting the  record
    18  or records within twenty business days from the date of the acknowledge-
    19  ment  of the receipt of the request, the agency shall state, in writing,
    20  both the reason for the inability to [grant the request]  do  so  within
    21  twenty  business  days  and  a  date certain within a reasonable period,
    22  depending on the circumstances, when [the request  will  be  granted  in
    23  whole or in part] a determination regarding disclosure will be rendered.
    24    (e) Upon payment of, or offer to pay, the fee prescribed therefor, the
    25  entity  shall  provide a copy of such record and certify to the correct-
    26  ness of such copy if so requested, or as the case may be, shall  certify
    27  that  it  does  not  have  possession of such record or that such record
    28  cannot be found after diligent search.
    29    (f) Nothing in this article shall be construed to require  any  entity
    30  to [prepare] create any record not possessed or maintained by such enti-
    31  ty  except the records specified in subdivision three of section eighty-
    32  seven and subdivision three of section  eighty-eight  of  this  article.
    33  When  an  agency has the ability to retrieve or extract a record or data
    34  maintained in a computer storage system with reasonable effort, it shall
    35  be required to do so. When doing so requires  less  employee  time  than
    36  engaging  in manual retrieval or redactions from non-electronic records,
    37  the agency shall be required to retrieve or extract such record or  data
    38  electronically. [Any programming necessary to retrieve] The retrieval of
    39  a  record  or  data maintained in a computer storage system and [to] the
    40  transfer of that record to the medium requested by  a  person  or  to  a
    41  medium  that  would  allow  the transferred record to be read or printed
    42  shall not be deemed to be the [preparation or] creation of a new record.
    43    [(b)] (g) All entities shall,  provided  such  entity  has  reasonable
    44  means  available,  accept  requests for records submitted in the form of
    45  electronic mail and shall respond to such requests by  electronic  mail,
    46  using  forms,  to  the  extent  practicable, consistent with the form or
    47  forms developed by the committee on open government pursuant to subdivi-
    48  sion one of this section and provided that the written requests  do  not
    49  seek a response in some other form.
    50    [(c)]  (h)  Each  state agency, as defined in subdivision five of this
    51  section, that maintains a website shall ensure its website provides  for
    52  the online submission of a request for records pursuant to this article.
    53    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.