A nonprofit reform group recently filed suit against three Nassau County entities after they failed to comply with a request for public documents.
Reclaim New York Center for Government Reform and Accountability (Reclaim New York), is filing of litigation against the Town of Oyster Bay and the Manhasset and Elmont school districts, alleging that all three refused to comply with New York state’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), thereby failing to adhere to transparency laws when they denied or ignored requests to reveal contracts and expenditure information.“New Yorkers shouldn’t have to beg to see how local government spends their money,” said Brandon Muir, Reclaim New York executive director. “This lawsuit and others combine with our grassroots effort to put every public official and taxpayer-funded entity on notice that the days of spending money in the shadows are over.”
Reclaim New York also took issue with the Village of Mineola, citing them in the June 7 press conference as one of the entities that did not return the requested information. However, village clerk and records access officer Joe Scalero said that the group’s claim that they didn’t comply with the request is inaccurate, as he had been in constant communication with the group as to the status of the documents, which were handed in on June 7.
“They asked for an extensive document. It took a long time to put it together in the format they wanted,” Scalero said, noting that the group asked for 400-500 pages of information. “It’s a big request. It takes time. They got everything they asked for.”
Scalero went onto say that the village receives hundreds of FOIL requests every year. Some take days, others take months, but Scalero said he responds to all of them. He said that Reclaim New York’s claim that the village handed in information late is misleading, as there was no set deadline.
“FOIL doesn’t set a time limit on large requests,” said Scalero, who said that he had been updating the group on the status of the documents. “There is almost nothing in FOIL that says you have to drop everything to respond to one request. Large requests take longer.”
Reclaim New York launched a statewide transparency project in March to open the checkbooks of all of New York’s 3,400-plus governments to public view. More than 250 FOIL requests were sent to Long Island governments and close to 75 percent of governments across Long Island that received FOIL requests from Reclaim New York provided the information.
Kellogg said that the Town of North Hempstead did comply with the FOIL request, though it was after May 11, the date when Reclaim NY announced the entities that did not send in the documents.
“We wish they did it sooner, but the town keeps a very good website and are leading in that regard,” Kellogg said. “They’re in a positive light. They sent in information late, but they sent in the complete information.”
In the coming weeks, all the checkbook information Reclaim New York has received from Long Island will be included in a searchable online database. Reclaim New York said that this public resource will allow any citizen, for the first time, to see how their taxpayer dollars are being spent, and set an example for governments on how they can be proactively transparent.
“We can use technology to ensure accountability,” said Muir. “This effort engages people across the state in demanding not only government compliance, but greater access to spending information. The New York Transparency Project will destroy barriers that keep the public in the dark while government spends more every year.”
Kellogg said the end goal of this project is to make it as easy as possible for citizens to hold their government accountable through understanding how to FOIL and having access to basic information on how tax dollars are being spent.
“We believe that’s the answer to the larger corruption problem, having citizens watch over government and have the tools to do that affectively,” Kellogg said. “We want to see proactive transparency and an engaged citizenry overseeing government. That’s what will provide long-term change and clear up the culture of corruption.”
