Bill Text: NY S06608 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Amended

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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: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-12-28 - COMMITTED TO RULES [S06608 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-S06608-Amended.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                         6608--B

                               2019-2020 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                      June 19, 2019
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sens. HARCKHAM, LANZA -- read twice and ordered printed,
          and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules --  commit-
          tee  discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recom-
          mitted to said committee -- recommitted to the Committee  on  Investi-
          gations  and  Government  Operations in accordance with Senate Rule 6,
          sec. 8 -- committee discharged, bill  amended,  ordered  reprinted  as
          amended and recommitted to said committee

        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.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD01195-06-0
        S. 6608--B                          2

     1    (b)  An  agency shall not deny a request on the basis that the request
     2  is voluminous or that locating, generating or  reviewing  the  requested
     3  record  or  records  or  providing  the  requested  copies is burdensome
     4  because the agency lacks sufficient staffing or on any  other  basis  if
     5  the  agency  may engage an outside professional service to provide copy-
     6  ing, programming or other services required to  provide  the  copy,  the
     7  costs  of  which  the  agency  may  recover pursuant to paragraph (c) of
     8  subdivision one of section eighty-seven of this article.
     9    (c) An agency may require a  person  requesting  lists  of  names  and
    10  addresses  to  provide a written certification that such person will not
    11  use such lists of names of natural persons and residential addresses for
    12  solicitation or fund-raising purposes and will not sell, give or  other-
    13  wise  make  available  such  lists  of  names and addresses to any other
    14  person for the purpose of allowing that person  to  use  such  lists  of
    15  names and addresses for solicitation or fund-raising purposes.
    16    (d)  If  [an agency determines to grant a request in whole or in part,
    17  and if] circumstances  prevent  an  agency  from  notifying  the  person
    18  requesting the record or records of the agency's determination regarding
    19  the  rights of access and disclosure to the person requesting the record
    20  or records within twenty business days from the date of the acknowledge-
    21  ment of the receipt of the request, the agency shall state, in  writing,
    22  both  the  reason  for the inability to [grant the request] do so within
    23  twenty business days and a date  certain  within  a  reasonable  period,
    24  depending  on  the  circumstances,  when [the request will be granted in
    25  whole or in part] a determination regarding disclosure will be rendered.
    26    (e) Upon payment of, or offer to pay, the fee prescribed therefor, the
    27  entity shall provide a copy of such record and certify to  the  correct-
    28  ness  of such copy if so requested, or as the case may be, shall certify
    29  that it does not have possession of such  record  or  that  such  record
    30  cannot be found after diligent search.
    31    (f)  Nothing  in this article shall be construed to require any entity
    32  to [prepare] create any record not possessed or maintained by such enti-
    33  ty except the records specified in subdivision three of section  eighty-
    34  seven  and  subdivision  three  of section eighty-eight of this article.
    35  When an agency has the ability to retrieve or extract a record  or  data
    36  maintained in a computer storage system with reasonable effort, it shall
    37  be  required  to  do  so. When doing so requires less employee time than
    38  engaging in manual retrieval or redactions from non-electronic  records,
    39  the  agency shall be required to retrieve or extract such record or data
    40  electronically. [Any programming necessary to retrieve] The retrieval of
    41  a record or data maintained in a computer storage system  and  [to]  the
    42  transfer  of  that  record  to  the medium requested by a person or to a
    43  medium that would allow the transferred record to  be  read  or  printed
    44  shall not be deemed to be the [preparation or] creation of a new record.
    45    [(b)]  (g)  All  entities  shall,  provided such entity has reasonable
    46  means available, accept requests for records submitted in  the  form  of
    47  electronic  mail  and shall respond to such requests by electronic mail,
    48  using forms, to the extent practicable,  consistent  with  the  form  or
    49  forms developed by the committee on open government pursuant to subdivi-
    50  sion  one  of this section and provided that the written requests do not
    51  seek a response in some other form.
    52    [(c)] (h) Each state agency, as defined in subdivision  five  of  this
    53  section,  that maintains a website shall ensure its website provides for
    54  the online submission of a request for records pursuant to this article.
    55    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.