Assembly Bill A8586

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   8586
 
                           I N  A S S E M B L Y
 
                             January 12, 2024
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  M. of A. RAGA -- read once and referred to the Committee
   on Governmental Operations
 
 AN ACT to amend the public officers law, in relation to time frames  for
   responding  to  requests  for records under the freedom of information
   act
 
   THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   Section  1. Subdivision 3 of section 89 of the public officers law, as
 amended by chapter 223 of the laws of 2008 and paragraph (c) as added by
 chapter 47 of the laws of 2018, is amended to read as follows:
   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],  including,
 where  appropriate, a statement that access to the record will be deter-
 mined in accordance with subdivision five of  this  section.    IF  SUCH
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT IS NOT FURNISHED WITHIN FIVE BUSINESS DAYS, SUCH REQUEST
 SHALL BE DEEMED DENIED AND IS APPEALABLE.
   (I)  (A)  AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT SHALL INCLUDE A STATEMENT OF THE APPROXI-
 MATE DATE, WHICH SHALL BE REASONABLE  UNDER  THE  CIRCUMSTANCES  OF  THE
 REQUEST  AND  WHICH  SHALL  NOT  EXCEED  THIRTY DAYS FROM RECEIPT OF THE
 ORIGINAL REQUEST, WHEN SUCH REQUEST WILL BE GRANTED  OR  DENIED,  AND  A
 STATEMENT  EXPLAINING WHY SUCH DELAY IS NECESSARY UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCE
 OF THE REQUEST. IF A RESPONSE IS NOT ISSUED BY THE DATE  STATED  IN  THE
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT,  THE  REQUEST  SHALL BE DEEMED DENIED AND IS APPEALABLE,
 EXCEPT AS PROVIDED FOR IN CLAUSE (B) OF THIS SUBPARAGRAPH.
   (B) AN AGENCY MAY ONLY EXTEND THE RESPONSE DATE BEYOND THIRTY DAYS  IF
 SUCH AGENCY DETERMINES TO GRANT A REQUEST IN WHOLE OR IN PART AND IF THE
 AGENCY  IS  UNABLE  TO COMPLETE ITS RESPONSE WITHIN THIRTY DAYS. IN SUCH
 CASE, SUCH AGENCY SHALL STATE  IN  WRITING  BOTH  THE  REASON  THAT  THE
 RESPONSE COULD NOT BE COMPLETED WITHIN THIRTY DAYS AND PROVIDE A DATE NO
 LATER  THAN  SIXTY  DAYS  FROM RECEIPT OF THE ORIGINAL REQUEST WHEN SUCH
 REQUEST SHALL BE GRANTED IN WHOLE OR IN PART. IN NO CASE SHALL AN AGENCY
 TAKE LONGER THAN SIXTY DAYS TO RESPOND TO A REQUEST. IF A FULL  RESPONSE
              

 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD13710-01-3
 A. 8586                             2
 
 IS  NOT ISSUED WITHIN SIXTY DAYS, THE REQUEST SHALL BE DEEMED DENIED AND
 IS APPEALABLE.
   (II)  An agency shall not deny a request on the basis that the request
 is voluminous or that locating or reviewing  the  requested  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 copying, programming or other
 services required to provide the copy, the costs of which the agency may
 recover pursuant to paragraph (c) of subdivision one of section  eighty-
 seven of this article.
   (III)  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 and addresses for solicitation or fund-raising
 purposes and will not sell, give or otherwise 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. If an agency determines to  grant  a  request  in
 whole  or in part, and if circumstances prevent disclosure to the person
 requesting the record or records within twenty business  days  from  the
 date  of  the  acknowledgement of the receipt of the request, the agency
 shall state, in writing, both the reason for the inability to grant  the
 request  within twenty business days and a date certain within a reason-
 able period, depending on the circumstances, when the  request  will  be
 granted in whole or in part.
   (IV)  Upon  payment  of, or offer to pay, the fee prescribed therefor,
 the entity shall provide a copy  of  such  record  and  certify  to  the
 correctness  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.
   (V)  Nothing  in this article shall be construed to require any entity
 to prepare any record not possessed or maintained by such entity  except
 the  records  specified in subdivision three of section eighty-seven and
 subdivision three of section eighty-eight of this article. When an agen-
 cy 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 electron-
 ically. Any programming necessary to retrieve a record maintained  in  a
 computer  storage  system  and  to  transfer  that  record to the medium
 requested by a person or to allow the transferred record to be  read  or
 printed  shall  not be deemed to be the preparation or creation of a new
 record.
   (b) All entities shall, provided  such  entity  has  reasonable  means
 available,  accept  requests  for records submitted in the form of elec-
 tronic 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 subdivision
 one of this section and provided that the written requests do not seek a
 response in some other form.
   (c) 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 January 1, 2025.