Transparency Bills Pass State Assembly

Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan has announced that the Assembly passed a series of bills designed to increase government transparency and ensure compliance with the open meetings and freedom of information laws. The legislation coincides with the fourth annual Sunshine Week, which ran from Mar. 15-21.

"Transparency and accountability are essential keys to the operation of effective, fair government for the people, and by the people," Nolan said. "The Assembly consistently pursues efforts to make government more open and responsive to the needs of New Yorkers, and this legislative package continues our commitment."

The Assembly's legislative package includes bills designed to:

• require centralized publishing of agency reports online (A.650);

• provide that public bodies post notices of the place and time of public meetings on their websites (A.3169);

• strengthen the Open Meetings Law by providing an additional mechanism courts may use to enforce the law when any portion of a meeting is closed in violation of the law (A.2046-A);

• allow any meeting of a public body to be recorded, broadcast and photographed, as long as it's done in a way that's not disruptive to the meeting (A.1045);

• waive the ability of government agencies in New York to claim copyright protection except where the record reflects artistic creation, or scientific or academic research (A.5726);

• direct public bodies to make reasonable efforts to conduct meetings in facilities sufficiently sized to accommodate the number of people who want to attend (A.5873);

• require agencies to accept and respond to requests for records made through electronic mail if the agency has reasonable means to do so (A.6371);

• require agencies to accept and respond to requests for records under the Personal Privacy Protection Law (A.6382); and,

• limit the time state agencies would have to appeal supreme court judgments against them for violations of freedom of information laws (A.6484).

Last year, a law was passed strengthening the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) by allowing individuals to request a copy of a public record in a form other than paper (Ch. 223 of 2008). The Assembly also helped pass a law requiring that subject matter lists maintained by state agencies be posted online (Ch. 499 of 2008).

Sunshine Week is known as a national, non-partisan initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, non-profits, schools and others interested in the public's right to know how its government operates.

"Sunshine Week is a helpful reminder that we need to constantly push for better laws that make governmental information as accessible to the public as possible," Assemblymember Nolan said. "We'll continue to work in the Assembly to advance measures to strengthen the public's right to know and improve government transparency."