SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - FOIA And FOIL For Access To Information

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

The Freedom of Information Act, I tell my journalism students, was the best thing to come along for journalists since the typewriter. For nearly 40 years in my Investigative Reporting course at SUNY Old Westbury I teach the history and use of what is acronymed FOIA.

In fact, not just journalists but anybody can utilize FOIA. It’s a window on what government does—a breakthrough in what these days is called transparency.  But mainly journalists use it, and what a treasure for democracy.

“Democracy works best when the people have all the information that the security of the nation will permit,” said President Lyndon Johnson when he signed FOIA into law on, appropriately, the Fourth of July, 1966. 

Considered the “father” of FOIA is Congressman John Moss of California.  In his 12-year struggle, he faced enormous resistance from fellow officials. 

With its provisions allowing the public to obtain information from the federal government (with nine exemptions), FOIA went into effect in 1967. Most states—including New York—followed it with similar laws. In New York, a Freedom of Information Law, acronymed FOIL, was enacted in 1974. Because counties, cities, towns, villages and school districts are all created by the state, they are covered by FOIL. To oversee FOIL in New York, there’s a Committee on Open Government. Since 1976 its executive director has been Robert J. Freeman. He is wonderful! An attorney, he’s always available with advice and opinions when there’s trouble in getting information under FOIL.

And there often is. The passage of a law is time again not enough. There are officials and government entities that won’t comply.  And with FOIL, this includes a number in Suffolk.

The organization Reclaim New York has just brought a lawsuit in State Supreme Court in Suffolk against the Southampton School District and Islip and Babylon Towns for refusal to comply with FOIL. Reclaim New York, as its website states, “is a non-partisan organization dedicated to advancing a statewide, grassroots conversation about the future of New York, its economy and its people.”  Major focuses are “government reform and accountability.” Based in Manhattan, it has been doing a lot on Long Island including working its New York Transparency Project here. 

The organization filed FOIL requests this year and last with every town, village and school district and both counties on Long Island for copies of records of expenditures to vendors for fiscal year 2014. The object: to get the records so residents could see where their tax money had gone. Not exactly a radical request. Most—but not all—of the entities complied.

Towns in Suffolk that denied providing the information under FOIL were Islip and Babylon, according to a run-down on Reclaim New York’s website. One Suffolk village, Islandia, refused. As for Suffolk school districts, those which denied giving the information —or ignored repeated FOIL requests—were Bridgehampton, Eastport-South Manor, Quogue, Sayville and Southampton. The Suffolk County Economic Development Corporation ignored, too.  More were on the list when Reclaim New York initially published it, but with the attention, they then complied. What’s left are “the worst,” says a spokesperson for the group.

The Town of Smithtown, in contrast, provided the requested information under FOIL as did villages in Smithtown—Head of the Harbor, Nissequogue and the Branch—as well as the Smithtown School District.  

The Southampton School District has become quite a FOIL violator—why it is so deserving of a lawsuit. This April The Southampton Press sought under FOIL the findings of an investigation into allegations against Scott Farina before he resigned as superintendent of schools with a $300,000 pay-out. The district said this would be an “unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” And, yes, there is an exemption under both FOIA and FOIL when personal privacy is involved. But here a law firm conducted—with taxpayers in the Southampton School District paying its bill—an investigation into the allegations and $300,000 in tax dollars was given to Dr. Farina, a public employee, upon his resignation.

Surely, the publics’ right-to-know is preeminent here. Mr. Freeman has offered an opinion that there is no FOIL prohibition against the Southampton School District releasing the information. The Press is pursuing this issue.

With FOIA and FOIL, many times you have to fight to get information. I not only teach about each, but as a journalist use them. An especially big FOIA battle came after I learned that a 1986 mission of the Challenger space shuttle had it lofting a plutonium-fueled space probe. Under FOIA, I sought all government information on the consequences if the Challenger underwent an accident and deadly plutonium was spread on that May launch. The U.S. Department of Energy denied my request claiming the information was technical and also I would be paid for reporting about it as a journalist—both baloney claims under FOIA. I appealed. It took a year of fighting but I won and received the grim information just before the Challenger exploded on launch in January. Its next mission was to be the nuclear one—and not just seven brave astronauts but many more people would have died if the disaster happened on it. I detailed this FOIA fight in my book “The Wrong Stuff.

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Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.