STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5322 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN SENATE March 1, 2023 ___________ Introduced by Sen. WEIK -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Investigations and Govern- ment Operations AN ACT to amend the public officers law, in relation to clarifying the amount of time an agency has to respond to a request 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. Paragraph (a) of subdivision 3 of section 89 of the public 2 officers law, as amended by chapter 223 of the laws of 2008, is amended 3 to read as follows: 4 (a) Each entity subject to the provisions of this article, within five 5 business days of the receipt of a written request for a record reason- 6 ably described, shall make such record available to the person request- 7 ing it, deny such request in writing or furnish a written acknowledge- 8 ment of the receipt of such request and a statement of the [approximate] 9 date, which shall be [reasonable under the circumstances of the request] 10 no longer than twenty days, when such request will be granted or denied, 11 including, where appropriate, a statement that access to the record will 12 be determined in accordance with subdivision five of this section. Any 13 entity subject to the provisions of this article which does not grant or 14 deny a request for a record within twenty-five days of such request 15 shall be deemed to have denied the request for such record. Any entity 16 subject to the provisions of this article which grants any request for a 17 record within twenty-five days of such request, but fails to provide 18 such records within forty days of such request, shall be deemed to have 19 denied the request for such record. An agency shall not deny a request 20 on the basis that the request is voluminous or that locating or review- 21 ing the requested records or providing the requested copies is burden- 22 some because the agency lacks sufficient staffing or on any other basis 23 if the agency may engage an outside professional service to provide EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD09264-01-3
S. 5322 2 1 copying, programming or other services required to provide the copy, the 2 costs of which the agency may recover pursuant to paragraph (c) of 3 subdivision one of section eighty-seven of this article. An agency may 4 require a person requesting lists of names and addresses to provide a 5 written certification that such person will not use such lists of names 6 and addresses for solicitation or fund-raising purposes and will not 7 sell, give or otherwise make available such lists of names and addresses 8 to any other person for the purpose of allowing that person to use such 9 lists of names and addresses for solicitation or fund-raising purposes. 10 If an agency determines to grant a request in whole or in part, and if 11 circumstances prevent disclosure to the person requesting the record or 12 records within twenty business days from the date of the acknowledgement 13 of the receipt of the request, the agency shall state, in writing, both 14 the reason for the inability to grant the request within twenty business 15 days and a date certain within a reasonable period, depending on the 16 circumstances, when the request will be granted in whole or in part. 17 Upon payment of, or offer to pay, the fee prescribed therefor, the enti- 18 ty shall provide a copy of such record and certify to the correctness of 19 such copy if so requested, or as the case may be, shall certify that it 20 does not have possession of such record or that such record cannot be 21 found after diligent search. Nothing in this article shall be construed 22 to require any entity to prepare any record not possessed or maintained 23 by such entity except the records specified in subdivision three of 24 section eighty-seven and subdivision three of section eighty-eight of 25 this article. When an agency has the ability to retrieve or extract a 26 record or data maintained in a computer storage system [with reasonable 27 effort], it shall be required to do so. When doing so requires less 28 employee time than engaging in manual retrieval or redactions from non- 29 electronic records, the agency shall be required to retrieve or extract 30 such record or data electronically. Any programming necessary to 31 retrieve a record maintained in a computer storage system and to trans- 32 fer that record to the medium requested by a person or to allow the 33 transferred record to be read or printed shall not be deemed to be the 34 preparation or creation of a new record. 35 § 2. Paragraph (a) of subdivision 4 of section 89 of the public offi- 36 cers law, as amended by chapter 22 of the laws of 2005, is amended to 37 read as follows: 38 (a) Except as provided in subdivision five of this section, any person 39 denied access to a record, or deemed to have been denied access to a 40 record pursuant to subdivision three of this section, may within thirty 41 days appeal in writing such denial to the head, chief executive or 42 governing body of the entity, or the person therefor designated by such 43 head, chief executive, or governing body, who shall within ten business 44 days of the receipt of such appeal fully explain in writing to the 45 person requesting the record the reasons for further denial, or provide 46 access to the record sought. In addition, each agency shall immediately 47 forward to the committee on open government a copy of such appeal when 48 received by the agency and the ensuing determination thereon. Failure by 49 an agency to conform to the provisions of subdivision three of this 50 section shall constitute a denial. 51 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.