Chapter 23, PUBLIC RECORDS, ACCESS TO
[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of
Trustees of the Village of Greenwood Lake 1-6-1975. Amendments noted where
applicable.]
§ 23-1. Access officer; duties.
The Village Clerk/Treasurer of the Village of Greenwood Lake shall
hereby be designated as the records access officer and shall have the duty of
coordinating the municipality’s response and that of its agencies to public
requests for access to records and shall be responsible for assuring that:
A. An up-to-date subject matter list is
maintained.
B. Assistance be given to the requester in the
identification of records, if necessary.
C. Upon locating the records he takes one of the
following actions:
(1) He
makes records promptly available for inspection.
(2) He
denies access to the records in whole or in part and explains in writing the
reasons therefor.
D. Upon request for copies of records:
(1) He
makes a copy available upon payment of $0.25 per page or, if any document
exceeds 81/2 inches by 14 inches, he ascertains the cost for commercial copy to
be prepared and, upon payment of said cost, he has said copy requested
prepared; or he permits the requester to copy the records at no charge. If the
requester does not provide sufficient information to locate particular data
requested and an extensive search of the files is required, an additional fee
of $2.50 per file searched beyond the initial file checked will be charged.
(2) The
minutes of the Village Board for the 12 months preceding the request will be
searched at no charge. However, the minutes of each prior twelve-month period
or part thereof shall be considered as one file. There will be no charge if the
requester personally searches the minutes.
E. Upon request, he certifies that a transcript
is a true copy of records copied, said certifications to be made at no charge.
F. Upon failure to locate records, he certifies
that:
(1) The
agency is not the legal custodian for such records.
(2) The records
of which the agency is a legal custodian cannot be found.
All requests for public records shall be made to and be available from
the office of the Village Clerk/Treasurer of Greenwood Lake, New York, at the
village office on Waterstone Road or at any subsequent location of said office
that it shall be officially relocated to.
Requests for public access to records shall be accepted and produced
during all hours that the Village Clerk‘s office is open for business. Requests
made immediately prior to the daily closing of said office, that cannot be
complied with within the regular working day remaining shall be accepted and
complied with at the next following regular workday or as hereinafter covered
in § 23-4.
A. Requests for records may be oral or in
writing. Written requests shall not be required for records that have been customarily
available without written request. If the records requested are extensive,
unique, requiring search of files or questionable as to their legal
availability to the requester, the Village Clerk/Treasurer shall have the
prerogative to require that the request be made in writing.
B. There shall be prompt response to any request
for records. Except under extraordinary circumstances, the response shall be
made no more than five working days after receipt of the oral or written
request.
C. Requests for access to records should be
sufficiently detailed to identify the records, and where possible, the
requester should supply information regarding dates, titles, file descriptions
or designations or other information which may help identify the records so that
municipal personnel can locate same within a reasonable period of time.
D. A request for any or all records falling
within a specific category shall conform to the standard that records be
identifiable.
E. No records may be removed by the requester
from the office where the record is available or located without the express
permission of municipal or agency personnel responsible for the maintaining of
said records.
A. The Village Board of Trustees shall be
designated to hear appeals for denial of access to records under the Freedom of
Information Law.EN Three
members of said Board, including the Mayor, shall constitute a quorum to review
and pass on such appeals.
B. Denial of access shall be in writing by the
Village Clerk/Treasurer, stating the reason therefor and advising the requester
of his right to appeal to the Village Board of Trustees.
C. If the municipality or its agency fails to
provide requested records promptly as required and heretofore stated in §
23-4B, such failure shall be deemed a denial of access by the municipality.
D. The time for deciding an appeal by the Village
Board of Trustees designated to hear appeals shall commence upon receipt of a
written appeal identifying:
(1) The
date and location of requests for records.
(2) The
records to which the requester was denied access.
(3) The
name and return address of the requester.
E. The Village Board of Trustees hearing the
appeal shall inform the requester of its decision within seven business days of
receipt of the appeal.
F. A formal denial of access to a requested
record, as provided for in Subsection E above, shall be subject to court review
as provided for in Article 78 of the Civil Practice Law and Rules.
The following records are available for public inspection and copying:
A. Final opinions and determinations made by the
Village Board, Planning Board and Board of Appeals, including concurring and
dissenting opinions, as well as orders made in the adjudication of cases.
B. Those statements of policy and
interpretations which have been adopted by the agency and any documents,
memoranda, data or other materials constituting statistical or factual
tabulations which led to the formulation thereof.
C. Minutes and tapes of meetings of the governing
body, if any, of the agency and of public hearings held by the agency.
D. Internal or external audits and statistical or
factual tabulations made by or for the agency.
E. Administrative staff manuals and instructions
to staff that affect members of the public.
F. Police blotters and booking records.
G. Audit reports, budgets, census reports, civil
defense reports, debt statements, annual financial reports, election records, bank
statements, bond registers, federal and state aid records, tax collection
records, purchasing records, bids, insurance policies and contracts.
H. An itemized record setting forth the name,
address, title and salary of every officer or employee of an agency, except
officers and employees of the state law enforcement agencies, shall be compiled
by the fiscal officer charged with the duty of preparing payrolls for such
officers, and such records shall be made available for inspection by the
officer charged with the duty of certifying such payrolls to bona fide members
of the news media upon written notice. In the case of the state police and
other law enforcement agencies, the records shall list the official‘s or
employees’ title and said salary only, without identifying individual
employees. Said written notice shall be made upon a form to be prescribed by
the Comptroller of the state and shall be reasonable and specify what records
are to be requested with particularity. The records may be inspected under the
supervision of the fiscal officer‘s office and only in the particular fiscal
officer’s office during regular working hours and regular working days or at
such other place as may be convenient to the particular fiscal officer.
I. Final determinations and dissenting opinions
of members of the governing body, if any, of the agency.
J. Any other files, records, papers or
documents required by any other provision of law to be made available for
public inspection or copying.
§ 23-7. Records not available.
A. No disclosure of such personal matters as may
have been reported in confidence to an agency or municipality and which are not
relevant or essential to the ordinary work of the agency or municipality may be
made.
B. No disclosure of employment, medical or credit
histories or personal references of applicants for employment shall be made,
except that such records may be disclosed when the applicant has provided a
written release permitting such disclosure.
C. No disclosure of items involving medical or
personal records of a client or patient in a hospital or medical facility may
be made.
D. The sale or release of lists of names and
addresses in the possession of any agency or the municipality if such lists
would be used for private, commercial or fund-raising purposes shall not be
made.
E. No disclosure shall be made of items of a
personal nature when disclosure would result in economic or personal hardship
to the subject party and such records are not relevant or essential to the
ordinary work of the agency or municipality.
F. No disclosure of information shall be made of
information or records that are specifically exempted by statute.
G. No disclosure shall be made of information
confidentially disclosed to an agency and compiled and maintained for the regulation
of commercial enterprise, including trade secrets, or for the grant and review
of a license to do business and which, if openly disclosed, would permit an
unfair advantage to competitors of the subject enterprise, but this exemption
shall not apply to records the disclosure or publication of which is directed
by other statute.
H. No information shall be disclosed which, if
disclosed, would be an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.
I. No disclosure shall be made of investigatory
files compiled for law enforcement purposes.
§ 23-8. Construal of provisions.
Nothing in these rules and regulations shall be construed to limit or
abridge any existing right of access at law or in equity of any party to public
records kept by an agency or municipality.