S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
7544
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
I N A S S E M B L Y
May 13, 2021
___________
Introduced by M. of A. ZEBROWSKI, GALEF, PAULIN, GOTTFRIED -- read once
and referred to the Committee on Governmental Operations
AN ACT to amend the public officers law, in relation to accessing
records under the freedom of information law
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. Subparagraph iii of paragraph (b) of subdivision 2 and
subdivision 3 of section 89 of the public officers law, subparagraph iii
of paragraph (b) of subdivision 2 as amended by section 2 of part GGG of
chapter 59 of the laws of 2019, subdivision 3 as amended by chapter 223
of the laws of 2008 and paragraph (c) of subdivision 3 as added by chap-
ter 47 of the laws of 2018, are amended to read as follows:
iii. sale or release of lists of names OF NATURAL PERSONS and RESIDEN-
TIAL addresses if such lists would be used for solicitation or fund-
raising purposes;
3. (a) Each entity subject to the provisions of this article, within
five business days of the receipt of a written request for a record
reasonably described, shall make such record available to the person
requesting it, deny such request in writing or furnish a written
acknowledgement of the receipt of such request and a statement of the
approximate date, which shall be reasonable under the circumstances of
the request, when [such request will be granted or denied] A RESPONSE
WILL BE GIVEN, including, where appropriate, a statement that access to
the record will be determined in accordance with subdivision five of
this section.
(B) An agency shall not deny a request on the basis that the request
is voluminous or that locating, GENERATING or reviewing the requested
RECORD OR records or providing the requested copies is burdensome
because the agency lacks sufficient staffing or on any other basis if
the agency may engage an outside professional service to provide copy-
ing, programming or other services required to provide the copy, the
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03912-01-1
A. 7544 2
costs of which the agency may recover pursuant to paragraph (c) of
subdivision one of section eighty-seven of this article.
(C) An agency may require a person requesting lists of names and
addresses to provide a written certification that such person will not
use such lists of names OF NATURAL PERSONS and RESIDENTIAL addresses for
solicitation or fund-raising purposes and will not sell, give or other-
wise make available such lists of names and addresses to any other
person for the purpose of allowing that person to use such lists of
names and addresses for solicitation or fund-raising purposes.
(D) If [an agency determines to grant a request in whole or in part,
and if] circumstances prevent AN AGENCY FROM NOTIFYING THE PERSON
REQUESTING THE RECORD OR RECORDS OF THE AGENCY'S DETERMINATION REGARDING
THE RIGHTS OF ACCESS AND disclosure to the person requesting the record
or records within twenty business days from the date of the acknowledge-
ment of the receipt of the request, the agency shall state, in writing,
both the reason for the inability to [grant the request] DO SO within
twenty business days and a date certain within a reasonable period,
depending on the circumstances, when [the request will be granted in
whole or in part] A DETERMINATION REGARDING DISCLOSURE WILL BE RENDERED.
(E) Upon payment of, or offer to pay, the fee prescribed therefor, the
entity shall provide a copy of such record and certify to the correct-
ness of such copy if so requested, or as the case may be, shall certify
that it does not have possession of such record or that such record
cannot be found after diligent search.
(F) Nothing in this article shall be construed to require any entity
to [prepare] CREATE any record not possessed or maintained by such enti-
ty except the records specified in subdivision three of section eighty-
seven and subdivision three of section eighty-eight of this article.
When an agency has the ability to retrieve or extract a record or data
maintained in a computer storage system with reasonable effort, it shall
be required to do so. When doing so requires less employee time than
engaging in manual retrieval or redactions from non-electronic records,
the agency shall be required to retrieve or extract such record or data
electronically. [Any programming necessary to retrieve] THE RETRIEVAL OF
a record OR DATA maintained in a computer storage system and [to] THE
transfer OF that record to the medium requested by a person or to A
MEDIUM THAT WOULD allow the transferred record to be read or printed
shall not be deemed to be the [preparation or] creation of a new record.
[(b)] (G) All entities shall, provided such entity has reasonable
means available, accept requests for records submitted in the form of
electronic mail and shall respond to such requests by electronic mail,
using forms, to the extent practicable, consistent with the form or
forms developed by the committee on open government pursuant to subdivi-
sion one of this section and provided that the written requests do not
seek a response in some other form.
[(c)] (H) Each state agency, as defined in subdivision five of this
section, that maintains a website shall ensure its website provides for
the online submission of a request for records pursuant to this article.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.