Bill Text: NY A08255 | 2017-2018 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relates to accessing records under the freedom of information law including notification procedures and the release of names of natural persons and residential addresses.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2018-02-12 - REFERRED TO INVESTIGATIONS AND GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS [A08255 Detail]

Download: New_York-2017-A08255-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                          8255
                               2017-2018 Regular Sessions
                   IN ASSEMBLY
                                      June 2, 2017
                                       ___________
        Introduced by M. of A. BUCHWALD -- read once and referred to the Commit-
          tee on Governmental Operations
        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 11 of part U  of
     4  chapter  61  of the laws of 2011 and subdivision 3 as amended by chapter
     5  223 of the laws of 2008, are amended to read as follows:
     6    iii. sale or release of lists of names of natural persons and residen-
     7  tial addresses if such lists would be used  for  solicitation  or  fund-
     8  raising purposes;
     9    3.  (a)  Each entity subject to the provisions of this article, within
    10  five business days of the receipt of a  written  request  for  a  record
    11  reasonably  described,  shall  make  such record available to the person
    12  requesting it, deny  such  request  in  writing  or  furnish  a  written
    13  acknowledgement  of  the  receipt of such request and a statement of the
    14  approximate date, which shall be reasonable under the  circumstances  of
    15  the  request,  when  [such request will be granted or denied] a response
    16  will be given, including, where appropriate, a statement that access  to
    17  the  record  will  be  determined in accordance with subdivision five of
    18  this section.
    19    (b) An agency shall not deny a request on the basis that  the  request
    20  is  voluminous  or  that locating, generating or reviewing the requested
    21  record or records  or  providing  the  requested  copies  is  burdensome
    22  because  the  agency  lacks sufficient staffing or on any other basis if
    23  the agency may engage an outside professional service to  provide  copy-
    24  ing,  programming  or  other  services required to provide the copy, the
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD11801-01-7
        A. 8255                             2
     1  costs of which the agency may  recover  pursuant  to  paragraph  (c)  of
     2  subdivision one of section eighty-seven of this article.
     3    (c)  An  agency  may  require  a  person requesting lists of names and
     4  addresses to provide a written certification that such person  will  not
     5  use such lists of names of natural persons and residential addresses for
     6  solicitation  or fund-raising purposes and will not sell, give or other-
     7  wise make available such lists of  names  and  addresses  to  any  other
     8  person  for  the  purpose  of  allowing that person to use such lists of
     9  names and addresses for solicitation or fund-raising purposes.
    10    (d) If [an agency determines to grant a request in whole or  in  part,
    11  and  if]  circumstances  prevent  an  agency  from  notifying the person
    12  requesting the record or records of the agency's determination regarding
    13  the rights of access and disclosure to the person requesting the  record
    14  or records within twenty business days from the date of the acknowledge-
    15  ment  of the receipt of the request, the agency shall state, in writing,
    16  both the reason for the inability to [grant the request]  do  so  within
    17  twenty  business  days  and  a  date certain within a reasonable period,
    18  depending on the circumstances, when [the request  will  be  granted  in
    19  whole or in part] a determination regarding disclosure will be rendered.
    20    (e) Upon payment of, or offer to pay, the fee prescribed therefor, the
    21  entity  shall  provide a copy of such record and certify to the correct-
    22  ness of such copy if so requested, or as the case may be, shall  certify
    23  that  it  does  not  have  possession of such record or that such record
    24  cannot be found after diligent search.
    25    (f) Nothing in this article shall be construed to require  any  entity
    26  to [prepare] create any record not possessed or maintained by such enti-
    27  ty  except the records specified in subdivision three of section eighty-
    28  seven and subdivision three of section  eighty-eight  of  this  article.
    29  When  an  agency has the ability to retrieve or extract a record or data
    30  maintained in a computer storage system with reasonable effort, it shall
    31  be required to do so. When doing so requires  less  employee  time  than
    32  engaging  in manual retrieval or redactions from non-electronic records,
    33  the agency shall be required to retrieve or extract such record or  data
    34  electronically. [Any programming necessary to retrieve] The retrieval of
    35  a  record  or  data maintained in a computer storage system and [to] the
    36  transfer of that record to the medium requested by  a  person  or  to  a
    37  medium  that  would  allow  the transferred record to be read or printed
    38  shall not be deemed to be the [preparation or] creation of a new record.
    39    [(b)] (g) All entities shall,  provided  such  entity  has  reasonable
    40  means  available,  accept  requests for records submitted in the form of
    41  electronic mail and shall respond to such requests by  electronic  mail,
    42  using  forms,  to  the  extent  practicable, consistent with the form or
    43  forms developed by the committee on open government pursuant to subdivi-
    44  sion one of this section and provided that the written requests  do  not
    45  seek a response in some other form.
    46    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.