Bill Text: NY S06816 | 2017-2018 | General Assembly | Introduced
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: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-06-20 - COMMITTED TO RULES [S06816 Detail]
Download: New_York-2017-S06816-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 6816 2017-2018 Regular Sessions IN SENATE June 20, 2017 ___________ Introduced by Sen. LANZA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules 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. LBD11801-01-7S. 6816 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,11and 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 in19whole 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.
