HomeMy WebLinkAboutFOIL Memo for boards and committees - 10-27-2020Memo on FOIL
Freedom Of Information Law
You may or may not have heard of FOIL before but it is the law under which a person can
request documents from government entities in the pursuit of full disclosure and transparency.
I thought I should give you all a primer on what the law is and what your responsibilities are as
committee members and holding documents (usually emails).
Freedom of Information Law https://www.dos.ny.gov/coog/index.html
The Committee on Open Government is an exceptional research source on this topic with an
extensive library of responses to questions posed by different entities. They are also very
responsive to an emailed question. Please do not hesitate to use the site or contact me with
questions.
“Document”
A document or record is “any means any information kept, held, filed, produced or reproduced
by, with or for an agency or the state legislature, in any physical form whatsoever including, but
not limited to, reports, statements, examinations, memoranda, opinions, folders, files, books,
manuals, pamphlets, forms, papers, designs, drawings, maps, photos, letters, microfilms,
computer tapes or discs, rules, regulations or codes.” In usage it essentially means everything!
If you are using Town computers or your own, it doesn’t matter. Work for the town is
government work as far as the law is concerned.
There are 2 exemptions to what has to be disclosed that we do exercise.
1) Documents/Emails between board members themselves or board members and staff are
called intra-agency and those between governmental agencies are called inter-agency;
these may be withheld if the town wants to. This is to promote the free-flow of ideas and
opinions between members without the fear of the public hearing or seeing these
comments. If a member were afraid a person might be able to see everything they say,
they may not be as open as needed to do good work.
The exception to the intra- or inter- agency is any portion of the of the record that contains:
i. statistical or factual tabulations or data;
ii. instructions to staff that affect the public;
iii. final agency policy or determinations; or
iv. external audits, including but not limited to audits performed by the comptroller and the
federal government
To be safe, you can simply forward them to Mike or me and in the event a FOIL request is
received, they will be reviewed and either released, or redacted and released.
Retention Schedule
NYS has an established retention schedule called the LGS-01 Schedule which we follow.
Basically, it is common sense. We keep things either zero after no longer needed such as an
invitation; 1 year, such as a thank you note; 6 years such as yearly reports from agencies (think
Lifelong) and Permanent such as complaints or comments on a topic submitted to your
committee or board from the public.
It is important that in your town work you attempt to keep to this schedule. Any permanent
correspondence or documents should be forwarded to myself or your liaison for filing and
retention.
By following a retention schedule, a FOIL is fulfilled according to that schedule and I can safely
say to the person, “to the best of my knowledge these are all the documents in the town’s
possession”
My contact info:
Townclerk@town.ithaca.ny.us or 607-273-1721 option 3
Paulette Rosa, Ithaca Town Clerk/RMO
11/2020