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Open and
Transparent Government in Yorktown
Your rights under two basic laws. Use them or lose them.
Your right to obtain copies of town records
For information about the Freedom of Information Law see Freedom of
Information Law
Your right to see and hear your government in action
For information about the Open Meetings Law see Open
Meetings Law
March
4, 2008
Freedom of Information
Susan Siegel (the CIY observer responsible for these summaries) read a
statement questioning whether there had been any changes in the town's policy
related to what documents would be made available to the town under the
Freedom of Information Law (FOIL requests).
For a copy of a statement made at the town board meeting of March 4, 2008
regarding the Freedom of Information Law see Town
Board Statement
Open Meetings
Ray Arnold asked when the decision on the new board liaison assignments had
been made. Town clerk Roker explained that the board can take action at any
meeting, be it a “regular” session or a “work”
session. Councilman Metz said that the assignments had been done in an open
work session.
March 18, 2008
Susan Siegel read a follow up statement that questioned the board's
commitment to open and transparent based on her recent experience with a FOIL
request for documents related to a December public hearing.
August
5, 2008
During Courtesy of the Floor Susan Siegel (the person writing this summary)
informed the board that she would be filing an Article 78 petition
challenging the town's denial of her FOIL request for information relating to
2007 Highway Department expenditures in a digital format. She said that the
appellate court had ruled that municipalities are obligated to provide
information in digital format if it can be done at minimal cost. The town's
position, she said, is that it is not obligated to provide the information in
digital format.
Councilman Bianco advised Ms. Siegel that the
information was available in hard copy (paper) and that she could have it as
soon as she paid the $18,75 copying charge. He said
it was his understanding that the data could not be provided in digital
format.
January
6, 2009
Speaking as an individual, Highway Superintendent Eric DiBartolo,
asked during the first courtesy of the floor segment of the agenda if the
town had any idea of how much it was costing the town to respond to FOIL
requests, adding that he thought town staff had better things to do with
their time. He suggested that the town put together a report indicating what
it was costing them to “chase down” the FOIL requests.
During the second courtesy of the floor segment at the end of the meeting,
Susan Siegel (the person writing this summary) responded to Mr. Di Bartolo's comments and said that while open government
might be a “nuisance,” it was the price we pay to live in a
democracy. She said that open government meant that the public had the right
to seek out information about what its government was doing. She said that
her FOIL requests were for information that benefited the entire community.
Citing her own experience with one specific request, she said the town could
have responded to that request in less than 15 minutes but instead chose to
fight it at a cost of $6,000 to the town..
In response to Ms. Siegel's comments, Councilman Matt Metz said that the town
was responding to all FOIL requests and contrary to what Ms. Siegel said, the
town was not stonewalling. He also said that she was misrepresenting the
settlement of her lawsuit and that the town had offered her what she wanted
before she sued but that she had rejected that offer.
January 20, 2009
Following up on comments made at the previous board meeting regarding her
FOIL lawsuit, Susan Siegel (the person writing this summary) stated that it
was the town board member who was misrepresenting the settlement that ended
her lawsuit. Reading from an April letter she had received from Town Attorney
John Buckley denying her request for a digital file, she stressed the
difference between hard copy and digital files. She said she only received
the digital file as a result of the lawsuit.
In response to her comments, Mr. Buckley stated that the town had offered her
the file in one version of excel, a statement she
challenged in a follow comment in the second courtesy of the floor.
July
7, 2009
During Courtesy of the Floor, Howard Frank advised the board that the minutes
of the Zoning Board's May 28th meeting, along with other documents he wanted
to review pertaining to an item that was on that evening's agenda, were not
yet available for public inspection under the Freedom of Information Law. He
asked the town board to look into the delay. One of the issues of concern to
him was the distinction between a 6 ft fence and a 6 ft wall.
In response, Councilman Nick Bianco said that the
Zoning Board is always late in finalizing its decisions and that he would
check into the matter.
February 2, 2010
FILE requests: If a resident comes in to a department asking to see
records, the department is to provide the record for the resident to read,
there is no need to file.
Some instances will be a little more complicated, and some may need to
be referred, but the goal is to make the process simple for residents to get
public information.
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