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ShareFOIL founder speaks at Cairo-Durham High School
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| Committee on Open Government Executive Director Robert Freeman discusses the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) at the Cairo-Durham Middle School. (Hilary Hawke, Hudson-Catskill Newspapers) |
By Hilary Hawke
For Hudson-Catskill Newspapers
CAIRO — Robert Freeman, Executive Director of the New York State Committee on Open Government (COOG) fielded questions and educated several dozen truth-seekers at an event held at the Cairo-Durham High School Thursday evening.
Freeman has been part of the organization since 1974 when, in response to widespread government mistrust during the Watergate Era, the Committee on Public Access was created.
That was soon followed by passage of the Freedom of Information Law and the formation of COOG. Freeman has served as COOG’s Executive Director for the past 33 years.
“I’ve upset everyone in the New York State Government at least once over the past 35 years,” he said.
The purpose of COOG is “overseeing and advising about the Freedom of Information (FOIL), Open Meetings (OML) and Personal Privacy Protection (PPL) Laws.”
FOIL enables citizens to examine how their government operates by providing access to records from “any New York State or municipal department, board, bureau, division, commission, committee, public authority, public corporation, council, office or other governmental entity.”
Citizens can also view some State Legislature Records but private corporations and companies are exempt.
The Open Meetings law or the ’Sunshine Law’ gives citizens the right to “attend public meetings, listen to debates and watch the decision-making process in action.”
The Personal Privacy Protection covers personal information collected by state agencies and safeguards the individual’s right to correct and amend it while prohibiting its release except in specific instances.
Audience questions ran the gamut from inquiries about how long various agencies must keep records to whether the New York State Thruway EZ Pass can disclose information.
Freeman cited several examples of FOIL’s significance, including a recent Albany County incident where police officers were caught padding the last three years of service, which determines their pension level, by putting in extensive overtime.
In one case, a cop’s salary topped $168,000.
Without FOIL, which allowed citizens to discover salaries, overtime and pension rules, the corruption might have gone unnoticed.
Freeman has written roughly 22,000 advisory opinions over the past three decades interpreting FOIL and the Open Meetings Law and resolving disputes involving disclosure.
“We don’t care who makes the inquiries,” Freeman said. “We’ve answered questions for the public, for the press and for the government. You could be the local lunatic, the local reporter or the local school board member. We will try to help everyone.”
Specific responsibilities of the Committee under the Freedom of Information Law involve providing advisory opinions, both oral and written, to any person and issuing rules about procedural aspects of the Law.
Freeman also discussed the ever-changing definition of what exactly a ’record’ is. When the original law was written in 1974, computer use was not widespread. There was no e-mail, no text messaging, no internet, and no widespread video use.
As the times have changed so has the definition of the word ’record.’ It now applies to tape-recorded versions of government meetings as well as the old-fashioned handwritten minutes.
According to Freeman, “A government doesn’t have to keep records forever.”
To learn how long different agencies keep them people can check the Arts and Cultural Affairs Department which has a schedule for the retention and the disposal of government records.
Freeman and COOG have gained national and international recognition over the past few decades and have provided a model for many other jurisdictions.
For more information go to http://www.dos.state.ny.us/coog/index.html.
Freeman has been part of the organization since 1974 when, in response to widespread government mistrust during the Watergate Era, the Committee on Public Access was created.
That was soon followed by passage of the Freedom of Information Law and the formation of COOG. Freeman has served as COOG’s Executive Director for the past 33 years.
“I’ve upset everyone in the New York State Government at least once over the past 35 years,” he said.
The purpose of COOG is “overseeing and advising about the Freedom of Information (FOIL), Open Meetings (OML) and Personal Privacy Protection (PPL) Laws.”
FOIL enables citizens to examine how their government operates by providing access to records from “any New York State or municipal department, board, bureau, division, commission, committee, public authority, public corporation, council, office or other governmental entity.”
Citizens can also view some State Legislature Records but private corporations and companies are exempt.
The Open Meetings law or the ’Sunshine Law’ gives citizens the right to “attend public meetings, listen to debates and watch the decision-making process in action.”
The Personal Privacy Protection covers personal information collected by state agencies and safeguards the individual’s right to correct and amend it while prohibiting its release except in specific instances.
Audience questions ran the gamut from inquiries about how long various agencies must keep records to whether the New York State Thruway EZ Pass can disclose information.
Freeman cited several examples of FOIL’s significance, including a recent Albany County incident where police officers were caught padding the last three years of service, which determines their pension level, by putting in extensive overtime.
In one case, a cop’s salary topped $168,000.
Without FOIL, which allowed citizens to discover salaries, overtime and pension rules, the corruption might have gone unnoticed.
Freeman has written roughly 22,000 advisory opinions over the past three decades interpreting FOIL and the Open Meetings Law and resolving disputes involving disclosure.
“We don’t care who makes the inquiries,” Freeman said. “We’ve answered questions for the public, for the press and for the government. You could be the local lunatic, the local reporter or the local school board member. We will try to help everyone.”
Specific responsibilities of the Committee under the Freedom of Information Law involve providing advisory opinions, both oral and written, to any person and issuing rules about procedural aspects of the Law.
Freeman also discussed the ever-changing definition of what exactly a ’record’ is. When the original law was written in 1974, computer use was not widespread. There was no e-mail, no text messaging, no internet, and no widespread video use.
As the times have changed so has the definition of the word ’record.’ It now applies to tape-recorded versions of government meetings as well as the old-fashioned handwritten minutes.
According to Freeman, “A government doesn’t have to keep records forever.”
To learn how long different agencies keep them people can check the Arts and Cultural Affairs Department which has a schedule for the retention and the disposal of government records.
Freeman and COOG have gained national and international recognition over the past few decades and have provided a model for many other jurisdictions.
For more information go to http://www.dos.state.ny.us/coog/index.html.
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