Freedom of Information - Opinion Letter

A while back, Ed Wiatr, on behalf of Concerned Citizens for Honest & Open Government wrote to Robert Freeman, Executive Director of the Committee On Open Government. Yesterday, Mr. Wiatr received an Opinion Letter (email) from Mr. Freeman.

A little history....Since about June 2006, in an effort to prevent us from posting town board meeting minutes on our website in a timely fashion, New Hartford town government started making minutes more difficult for us to get copies of even after we filed Freedom Of Information requests.

In December 2006, the Town Board announced that they would be holding meetings only once (1) a month instead of twice as had been done by previous administrations. That meant (or so they thought) that minutes would be delayed for more than a month because they would first need to be approved by the Town Board.

Unfortunately or fortunately depending on which side of the fence you are on, Concerned Citizens is well versed in the Freedom of Information Law and the Open Meetings Law. By law, minutes of meetings are to be available to the public within two (2) weeks of any public meeting whether they are approved or not. If not approved, the minutes merely need to be marked accordingly. So, to make sure that all residents are kept apprised of any actions taken by the town board, Concerned Citizens started submitting FOIL requests for the DRAFT minutes of all town board meetings.

At first, we were told we would have to pay for the town board meeting minutes because the Town Clerk said they were only available in pdf format; those minutes are often 30 or more pages at $.25 per page, it adds up. Knowing that the Freedom of Information Law had recently been amended to allow for electronic transmission of requested documents, Concerned Citizens once again challenged the town and requested that the board minutes be sent to us electronically to our email address. The Town Clerk contacted Mr. Freeman from the Committee on Open Government regarding our request. Once again, Mr. Freeman sided with us and stated that, according to law, any documents that are created in an electronic medium must be made available electronically, without charge, if requested in that form.

We are making available Robert Freeman's Opinion Letter so that you can read it for yourself.

Concerned Citizens is a group of town residents dedicated to working toward preserving the rights of all residents in the Town of New Hartford.

It is important to note, we were told on our last visit to the Town Clerk's office that Town Board meetings will once again be held two (2) times a month; on the second and last Wednesday of every month! Guess the town board wants to make sure that APPROVED minutes are available within two (2) weeks so that we don't have to get copies of the DRAFT minutes!