Senate Bill S445

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S445

SPONSOR: HOYLMAN
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to repeal subdivision 19 of section 94 of the executive law and
subdivision 12 of section 80 of the legislative law, relating to records
that are available for public inspection

 
PURPOSE:

To require the Joint Commission on Public Ethics and the Legislative
Ethics Commission to comply with the requirements of the Freedom of
Information Law (FOIL) and the Open Meetings Law.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 of the bill repeals subdivision 19 of section 94 of the Execu-
tive Law.

Section 2 of the bill repeals subdivision 12 of section 80 of the Legis-
              

lative Law.

Section 3 of the bill is the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Under existing law, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) and
the Legislative Ethics Commission (LEC) are expressly exempted from the
requirements of government transparency laws, including the Freedom of
Information Law (FOIL) and the Open Meetings Law.

This bill would subject JCOPE and the LEC to FOIL and the Open Meetings
Law, allowing more transparency and access to information about the
state's ethics watchdogs. FOIL and the Open Meetings Law contain suffi-
cient protections to keep investigations and investigation-related
activities exempt from public disclosure. The existing law is unneces-
sarily restrictive, and runs counter to the idea of open government.

In a February 2015 report, JCOPE included a specific legislative recom-
mendation to consider whether its current exemption from FOIL and the
Open Meetings Law should be modified to increase the transparency of
JCOPE's operations, while still protecting the integrity of JCOPE's
sensitive compliance and investigative functions.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

S.81 of 2017-2018 (Hoylman): Died in Finance
A.3618 of 2017-2018 (Rozic): Died in Governmental Operations
S.3241 of 2015-2016 (Hoylman): Died in Finance
A.9504 of 2016 (Rozic): Died in Governmental Operations

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

Minimal.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall become
law.