Freedom of Information and New Hartford Central School - Part 1

On April 9, 2007, prior to the school board election, Mr. Ed Wiatr submitted Freedom of Information requests to New Hartford Central School. Those requests have yet to be filled in their entirety.

On June 11, 2007, Mr. Wiatr received quite the letter from Anthony G. Hallak, attorney for New Hartford Central School. I urge everyone to read Mr. Hallak's letter to Ed Wiatr so you can judge for yourself. Please keep in mind that your tax dollars are paying for this bullsh*t and I have a feeling that Mr. Hallak's opinions don't come cheap!

Mr. Hallak allegations of "inappropriate threats" by Mr. Wiatr are unfounded...Mr. Wiatr's letters to Aurelia Greico, Records Access Officer does not appear to imply any "inappropriate threats". In fact, Mr. Wiatr's June letter to Ms. Aurelia Greico, New Hartford Records Access Officer, merely says that "you are in violation of the FOIL Law and should the requested documents not be received by June 12, 2007; it is my intention of putting this matter before the public and litigated in the appropriate forum." Mr. Wiatr is well within his rights to make that statement and it doesn't sound threatening to me.

Let me quote Mr. Hallak in his letter of June 11, 2007"

"When a person requests copies and the agency is willing to produce them, but the applicant refuses to pay requisite fees, agencies need not accede to ensuing requests until applicant has paid requisite fees....Your attempt to demand that the same be reduced to electronic form is an attempt on your part to avoid the costs of reproducing the hundreds, if not thousands, of pages of documents required. The District has no obligation to do so. The District is not required to retrieve and transform information...We are not required to create an electronic medium for your convenience."

Mr. Hallak's contention that in order to get documents that are requested under the Freedom Of Information Law, one has to pay for copies is untrue. We suggest that Mr. Hallak study the Freedom of Information Law a little better. In fact, on October 24, 2006, the Observer Dispatch contained an article "Public records available by e-mail today."

"When FOIL went into law in 1974, 'high-tech' was a typewriter. Email has now become a way of life, and increasingly people obtain information through e-mail. Freeman said."

The Freeman is this case is Robert Freeman, Executive Director of the Committee on Open Government. Since Attorney Anthony G. Hallak is probably busy typing away on his typewriter, if anyone knows him, you might want to send him a copy of the Observer Dispatch article; it might be time to update his knowledge of the FOI Law. As Ed and I looked at each document in our meeting at the school, we asked Mr. Nole if it was electronically produced. Mr. Nole confirmed that the documents were either electronically produced at the school or by B.O.C.E.S. So Mr. Hallak, for the record, whether you like it or not, if the documents are available electronically, the District MUST provide them to us electronically if we request them that way. That is the LAW!

According to Mr. Hallak's letter, he also states:

"we request you set up an appointment to review the requisite records during regular business hours....However, we reserve our rights to have someone present during the review and limit the time devoted so as not to take District employees away from their duties to the public."

Sure thing, Mr. Hallak. I know how time-consuming it is for school personnel to read all the bloggers everyday and some of us even get a visit 3, 4 and 5 times a day. In fact, I feel among the privileged for the number of visits I get from New Hartford Central School each day. The last thing we want to do is "waste" any of the District employees time!

On July 31, 2007, Ed Wiatr and I had a meeting with Dan Gilligan, Superintendent of New Hartford Central School and Robert Nole, Assistant Superintendent of the Business Office to review the requisite records requested by Mr. Wiatr's Freedom of Information requests of April 9, 2007.

This is a long story about the Freedom of Information Law and how local town and school personnel are either misinformed regarding Freedom of Information or are deliberately attempting to keep information away from taxpayers. I will report the story in 3 or 4 different segments.

To be continued....