New York transparency headlines
From Sunshine Review
This article is a list of transparency related news from New York.
See what city workers make
January 7, 2009: Mayor Michael Bloomberg famously pays himself $1 a year.
But in this era of painful scale-backs, with the layoff ax looming dangerously low over scores of workers, 18,361 city employees made annual salaries of more than $100,000 as of June 30, 2008, according to information released online yesterday by the not-for-profit watchdog group, the Empire Center.
That's more than 4 percent of a full- and part-time city workforce of 427,759. Read the full article here.
NIAGARA COUNTY: A new year, new fees at the clerk's office
January 5, 2009: Internet access to county property and court records will soon come at a price.
Starting this month, the Niagara County Clerk’s Office will require those interested in accessing county documents online to pay a one-time $50 activation fee as well as $100 every three months for unlimited searches.
The change is the result of a switch in online record search providers approved by the county Legislature earlier this year. The county had been providing Web access to public records under a $15,000-per-month “test” agreement with Affiliated Computer Services of Syracuse. The county has now entered into a five-year deal to pay $13,200 per month to Info Quick Solutions, a company located in Liverpool, N.Y. Read the full article here.
Local school salaries a major cost to taxpayers
December 28, 2008: Despite salary totals for the biggest local school district's administrators reaching more than $500,000 and past $1 million in one case, the smallest districts in the area spend the most per student on administrative costs, recent data found.
According to 2007-08 salary information obtained by The Leader-Herald via Freedom of Information Law requests, the three largest districts in the area - Gloversville Enlarged School District with 2,964 students in 2007-08, Greater Johnstown School District, with 2,000 students, and Broadalbin-Perth Central School District, with 1,961 students - spent $1.1 million, $589,000 and $615,000, respectively, on total salaries for superintendents, principals and treasurers/business managers. Read the full article here.
Committee tries to make N.Y. government records available on the Web
December 25, 2008: By all accounts, 2008 was a banner year for advocates of expanding access to public records and meetings.
Amendments to state law require that agencies provide records in the medium requested, such as compact disc, and mandatory awards of attorney's fees for violations of the Open Meetings Law.
"We had an incredible year. We've seen positive amendments to FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) or the Open Meetings Law (in) the last three sessions," said Robert Freeman, executive director of the state Committee on Open Government. Read the full article here.
Oncenter board votes to open up meetings
December 18, 2008: The people who run the Onondaga County Convention Center decided Wednesday afternoon that they are part of the government.
The board of directors of the Onondaga County Convention Center/War Memorial Complex Management Corp. voted unanimously to open the nonprofit organization's records and meetings to the public. The group acknowledges that it is subject to the state's Freedom of Information Law. Read the full article here.
Review finds oversight lacking in about 700 no-bid school contracts
December 14, 2008: The Rochester School District awarded nearly 700 no-bid contracts worth more than $5 million over the last two years without divulging the purpose of the agreements to the Board of Education as required, a Democrat and Chronicle examination of district financial records shows.
Failing to disclose details of deals with teacher trainers, student discipline specialists, educational consultants and the like make it virtually impossible for the board — and the public — to decipher what services the vendors offered and to whom. Read the full article here.
Maintenance, trades workers pull bulk of OT pay in New Rochelle schools
December 7, 2008: Two-thirds of the overtime paid by the New Rochelle school district last year went to maintenance workers and skilled tradesmen, including one who made more money than most veteran teachers in the district.
School maintenance worker Vincent Bonanno was the district's top overtime earner. He racked up $32,000 in overtime pay to boost his income to $132,419, according to a Journal News review of 2007 district salary data collected under the state Freedom of Information Law.
The look at school salaries in New Rochelle is part of an ongoing examination of government and school district payrolls across the Lower Hudson Valley. Read the full article here.
Saratoga Springs eyes income from accident reports
December 6, 2008: When insurance companies request an accident report from Saratoga Springs Police Department, they often send along a check to pay for the report.
The police aren’t able to accept those checks.
“We sent them back,” said Ron Kim, commissioner of public safety.
Accident reports are given free to whomever requests them.
But, next year the city plans to start charging for report requests that take more than two hours of an employee’s time to produce, after a change in the state’s Freedom of Information Law that allows that. Read the full article here.
State Senator-elect owes $60,000 in fines
Critic questions decisions behind Yorktown's legal spending
December 1, 2008: The town has spent nearly $160,000 this year defending five lawsuits and bringing two others, which for one resident has called into question the decisions of officials leading up to the lawsuits.
Susan Siegel raised the issue based on data she obtained under the state Freedom of Information Law. She said costly, possibly avoidable lawsuits underscore her call for residents to consider the merits of a town manager. Read the full article here.
City demanded free suite, food from Yankees, e-mails reveal
November 29, 2008: Mayor Bloomberg's top aides engaged in a behind-the-scenes brawl to win a free luxury suite at the new Yankee Stadium that could wind up costing taxpayers, e-mails show.
Some of the mayor's top deputies spent months threatening and cajoling to get the free skybox. They even demanded free food and ultimately got most of what they wanted after they agreed to provide America's richest team 250 free stadium parking spaces in exchange. Read the full article here.
Taxpayer accuses Gloversville of violating law
November 29, 2008: Taxpayer activist Jack Kinzie has accused the city of Gloversville of violating the state Freedom of Information Law by not releasing information he’s requested about the city’s payments to labor attorney Bryan Goldberger.
During the public comment period of the Common Council meeting this week, Kinzie, a town of Johnstown resident, told the council he filed a request under the FOIL seeking documents detailing the amount of money paid to Goldberger with the city’s FOIL access officer, City Clerk Brenda Pedrick, on Oct. 31. He said city Commissioner of Finance Bruce VanGenderen responded to his letter stating the city requires a $50 fee for the documents requested and it would take 90 days to process his request. Read the full article here.
EDITORIAL: Too many secrets
November 14, 2008: A new think-tank report proposes the state Freedom of Information Law be amended to require disclosure of tentative contract agreements with public labor unions.
The conservative-leaning Empire Center for New York State Policy says the secrecy of labor negotiations is unreasonably extended by most government entities to include the period between agreement on a tentative deal and actual ratification by both parties to the agreement. Read the full editorial here.
Former Niagra Falls Mayor indicted
Report: Secrecy costs N.Y. taxpayers millions
November 7, 2008: Elected officials around the state often keep details of proposed contracts with public-employee unions secret until they have been ratified, leaving taxpayers in the dark about millions of dollars in new commitments, according to a report from a watchdog group obtained today by Gannett News Service.
"They're committing millions of dollars in secret," said Lise Bang-Jensen of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, a conservative think tank based in Albany. Read the full article here.
High salaries in KJ School District
October 20, 2008: The man listed as clerk of the region's smallest school district is earning more than double what many of his peers in much larger public school systems are taking in.
Payroll records indicate Jacob Brach is paid nearly $137,000 a year as clerk of the Kiryas Joel School District — a salary his boss says is justified by the three functions that Brach juggles and his 18 years of service with the district.
Brach's unusually high salary was one of several curiosities to be found in the district's payroll, a public document that the Times Herald-Record recently obtained through the Freedom of Information Law only after repeated requests and a wait of 18 months. Read the full article here.
Bridge commission won't budge on disclosure
October 16, 2008: The Canadian head of the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission refused to shed any light Thursday on the sudden ouster of Thomas E. Garlock as general manager of the bi-national organization.
Janice A. Thomson, of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., chairwoman of the commission, was intractable on the matter before a meeting of The Buffalo News Editorial Board. Read the full article here.
Carmel officials say cell phone bills are private; FOI experts disagree
October 5, 2008: Officials are refusing to disclose details of taxpayer-funded cell phone bills for elected officials, saying that would invade people's privacy and put town operations at risk.
The town pays for nearly a dozen cell phones for officials at a total cost that has ranged from $600 to $2,470 a month - raising concerns about the costs and how the phones are being used.
The Journal News received summary sheets of the charges for the phones. The town would not provide itemized records that might have explained variations in monthly costs and usage or confirmed officials' contention that the phones are used only for town business. Read the full article here.
BRIDGE COMMISSION: County lawmakers getting in on the act
October 2, 2008: Niagara County lawmakers may formally add their names next week to the list of those interested in the terms of the compensation package of former Niagara Falls Bridge Commission Executive Director Thomas Garlock.
Niagara Falls Democrat Renae Kimble has sponsored a resolution that calls on the commission to release information about any severance package Garlock may have received when he left the binational agency in July. Read the full article here.
Yonkers official: Fuel records do exist
September 19, 2008: The city's inspector general said yesterday that he has records detailing fuel use by Yonkers' fleet of vehicles - information representatives of Mayor Phil Amicone have repeatedly refused to give The Journal News.
Inspector General Philip Zisman told The Journal News that he is conducting an audit of gasoline usage records from a fuel management system, known as Gasboy, which oversees the city's fuel pumps. Read the full article here.
Utica teacher pact should be public
September 16, 2008: Taxpayers are told that it’s good news that Utica public school teachers have approved a new contract with the district.
But taxpayers will have to take officials’ word for it. Neither the union nor the district will make the details public.
And that’s just plain wrong. Read the full editorial here.
City denies data on workers' take-home cars
September 15, 2008: The Journal News requested records of the amount of gasoline used and the miles driven by employees with the city-owned vehicles dating to 2003. The newspaper made the request under the state's Freedom of Information Law.
"Please be advised that no individualized records exist," wrote city Records Access Officer Eric Arena last month, responding to a May 9 request for information. Read the full article here.
Rockland resisted West Nile virus query
September 7, 2008: When a Pearl River man asked the Rockland Department of Health if a batch of West Nile positive mosquitoes found in Orangetown were near his home, he was told that it was the agency's policy not to disclose precise locations of where the virus is found.
The resident, John J. Tormey, wasn't satisfied with that answer.
"I wanted to know if these mosquitoes were near my house," he said. "It's a very reasonable question."
So Tormey filed a Freedom of Information request with the county asking for information about where in Orangetown the disease-carrying insects were collected. Read the full article here.
Lawmakers Ignore Law
September 4, 2008: The people who make the laws are not following one.
In a violation of New York's Freedom of Information Law, the Albany County Legislature does not maintain a complete voting record for every legislator.
"How do we know whom to elect unless we know where they stand on the issues," said Robert Freeman, Director of the Committee on Open Government. Read the full article here.
Times Union sues state over payroll records access
September 3, 2008: The Times Union sued state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli Wednesday, challenging his refusal to release state payroll data under a public information request.
In court papers, the newspaper questioned the comptroller's refusal to release payroll information sought earlier this year by J. Robert Port, the Times Union's senior editor for investigations. Port filed a request under the state's Freedom of Information Law, seeking an electronic copy of payroll tables. Read the full article here.
Watchdog groups urge N.Y. ethics panel to open up
September 3, 2008: Already under fire for its handling of the Troopergate scandal, the state Commission on Public Integrity is being knocked by good-government groups for apparently limiting public review of investigations.
Watchdog groups released a letter Tuesday urging the panel to not seal records of investigations into state lobbying activities after the probe is completed. The groups and the former head of the state Lobbying Commission contend that the records had been made public. Read the full article here.
Costs of OT, providing services tough to balance
August 17, 2008: Managing municipal overtime is a delicate balancing act for department heads and the elected officials to whom they report. An overview of the issue:
Communities that limit additional hiring -- particularly in public safety -- risk having to pay tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in OT for everything from a crisis to a colleague's vacation. Read the full article here.
Yonkers teachers union asks court to force release of school work schedules
August 13, 2008: A teachers union has asked a state judge to order the Yonkers Public Schools to disclose teachers' work schedules in its 39 schools.
The Yonkers Federation of Teachers wants a court to intervene in its dispute over the master lists prepared by school principals and their staffers. Read the full article here.
Yorktown accused of violating Freedom of Information Law
August 10, 2008: The town faces a lawsuit over allegations it violated the state Freedom of Information Law, or FOIL, by not providing electronic records of its Highway Department spending.
A 75-page packet of records has sat in Town Hall since March, waiting to be picked up by Susan Siegel, who the town says owes $18.75 in copying charges.
But Siegel, a resident known for her advocacy on the issues of sewers and sewage diversion and for bringing the town manager form of government to Yorktown, says the material the town provided is useless to her in its current format, and she believes the law is on her side. Read the full article here.
Changes Made To NY Freedom Of Information Law
August 8, 2008: Legislation approved by Gov. David Paterson and effective Thursday, Aug. 7, modernizes the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) and clarifies several of its provisions.
The amendments reflect a recognition of advances in information technology, as well as judicial determinations and advisory opinions prepared by the Committee on Open Government. It also provides guidance to agencies and the public concerning the costs associated with providing access to information that is maintained electronically. Read the full article here.
Paterson signs freedom-of-information law
August 8, 2008: People who successfully sue the state to get access to public records and attend government meetings will no longer have to pay their own legal fees, under a bill signed this week by Gov. David Paterson.
The legislation will deter government agencies from violating the Open Meetings Law, said Robert Freeman, executive director of the state Committee on Open Government. Read the full article here.
Mayor silent on department’s crime report policy
August 7, 2008: Mayor Byron W. Brown is refusing to comment on his Police Department’s decision to withhold basic crime information from the public, a policy that is drawing criticism from community leaders. Read the full article here.
Civil liberties union sues NYPD over race records
August 4, 2008: The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Monday against the New York Police Department, seeking information on the role of race in police-involved shootings. Read the full article here.
Change coming to FOIL law
August 2, 2008: The New York State Freedom of Information Law is undergoing some changes, and one difference residents may notice is that they will no longer be left in the dark at board meetings when officials deliberate on matters with documents in front of them.
The N.Y. State Senate approved legislation that would require state government entities to make available public records that are expected to be discussed at an open meeting, and that are subject to FOIL, at least 72 hours prior to the meeting. Read the full article here.
Web site lets taxpayers see public worker information
August 1, 2008: Ever wonder what your school superintendent's contract says? How much each one of the state's 263,000 employees earns? Or who your state senator pays for office rent or telephone calls?
Did you know that one state worker is paid $715,851 per year?
Much of that information became accessible via your computer as of this morning. Read the full article here.
Binghamton again rejects release of files in beating case
August 1, 2008: The city has again refused a request to make public its police files in the near-fatal beating of a university student, saying the release could interfere with the judicial process, including the right of fugitive defendant Miladin Kovacevic to get a fair trial. Read the full article here.
FOIL issues: The county's conflict of interest
July 24, 2008: Earlier this year, The Journal filed a freedom of information request seeking state Division of Human Rights complaints filed against Tompkins County. The county denied our request, claiming that by releasing the documents it would have violated a directive from the division not to provide any information about the cases. The directive came after settlements were reached in some the cases (there are five total cases with settlements being reached in four of them). Read the full editorial here.
City withholds beating case records
July 9, 2008: New York's open-records expert says the public has a right to see certain Binghamton police records in the near-fatal beating of a Binghamton University student, but city officials disagree.
A police official on Tuesday denied a Press & Sun-Bulletin request for access to police records in the assault of Bryan Steinhauer, saying that because the case is awaiting prosecution, the records should not be released. Last week, the city gave about 80 pages of records to the New York Post, but later said a clerk released the records in error. Read the full story here.
Open government updated
July 8, 2008: The New York State law establishing the presumption that most government records are public has also presumed that most government records are paper.
It’s a statute that’s more than 30 years old, after all. How many of your favorite recipes and family photographs were on a hard drive or compact disc in 1974? Read the full editorial here.
Naples business administrator resigns
July 6, 2008: The Board of Education has accepted the resignation of Business Administrator Ted Welch as part of a settlement, according to the June 25 school board meeting minutes.
After the Messenger made several attempts to contact Superintendent Brenda Keith for further detail, she responded in an e-mail but declined to answer any questions about the resignation or terms of the settlement with Welch, who has been on paid administrative leave. Read the full story here.
More sunshine could be on tap for New York
July 4, 2008: A good year at the Capitol means no legislation passes that could hamper the public's rights to government information and access, according to the head of the state's Committee on Open Government. Using that as a yardstick, this could be an off-the-charts, banner year for his cause.
"This year we're seeing a half-dozen positive bills likely to be signed," Robert Freeman, the agency's director, said Friday. Read the full story here.
Buffalo slashes number of employees eligible for take-home vehicles
June 3, 2008: Dozens of Buffalo city employees who have enjoyed take-home car privileges for years will no longer have vehicles for 24/7 use, Mayor Byron W. Brown announced today.
The mayor is slashing the city's fleet of take-home vehicles by 41 percent. The reduction will leave 50 city employees with take-home car privileges, down from 85. Read the full story here.
Utica not releasing codes information
June 23, 2008: The city of Utica continues not to provide records of key documents detailing codes inspections from 2005 to 2007, including a database containing such information.
The city missed a June 13 Freedom of Information Law deadline for providing the records sought.
Last week, officials from Mayor David Roefaro’s administration allowed a reporter to look by hand through voluminous paper records but would not make available a computer database of those records. Read the full story here.
Editorial: Government must remain open to all
June 20, 2008: The Freedom of Information Law has been around three decades, yet government officials continue to delay and deny requests, questioning the inquiries, claiming that they misunderstand the law, and generally setting up unnecessary hurdles that reduce trust in our leadership.
This must change, and residents need to hold leaders accountable in public sessions, if not at the ballot box. Read the full editorial here.
Democrats seek info on Hanna, Schools asked for records on construction firm
June 16, 2008: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has sought information from two area school districts about work done by Republican congressional candidate Richard Hanna’s construction company.
Officials from the West Canada Valley and Remsen districts said Monday they had gotten Freedom of Information letters asking for a range of documents relating to construction projects done by Hanna’s firm.
The requests reflect the level of opposition research conducted by political campaigns. Read the full story here.
Bill would make property assessments public
June 16, 2008: Proposed legislation making its way through the state Assembly and Senate would bolster the Freedom of Information Law and require municipalities to make property assessment records public.
One bill deals exclusively with making property assessment public record and would effectively reverse the decision of a state appellate court that ruled public property assessments are an unwarranted invasion of privacy.
A second bill, in the Assembly, includes a provision to address property assessments' status as public record and would also bring the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) up to date, said Bob Freeman, executive director of the state committee on open government. Read the full story here.
Utica misses deadline for access to codes records
June 15, 2008: The city of Utica has failed to comply with a Freedom of Information Law request from the Observer-Dispatch seeking records regarding codes enforcement actions.
The public has the right to view agency’s records because “government is the public’s business and … the public, individually and collectively and represented by a free press, should have access to the records of government,” according to state Freedom of Information Law.
A secretary in the Codes Department, who would not give her name, said the O-D’s request asked for too much. Read the full story here.
