SUFFOLK CLOSEUP
By Karl Grossman
Smithtown: B
That’s the score of the Town of Smithtown in the extraordinary investigation conducted by the Press Club of Long Island (PCLI) on compliance by 195 governments and government agencies on Long Island with the New York State Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).
“We emailed our request in two parts to the town clerk. The town scored points for emailing the minutes on the same day that we requested them and acknowledges the request for the other documents a day after it was made,” stated the “Open Records Report Card” issued by PCLI. “The town also got points for email its payroll list.”
The report card went on that Smithtown “lost a point for not providing a written FOIL policy, which we later found in the town code. It got a point in the helpfulness category for its speedy reply and having information on its website on how to file a FOIL request.”
FOIL, enacted in 1974, is the main state law seeking what these days is termed “transparency” in government. It’s a state version of the U.S Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) which was signed into law in 1966. Counties, cities, towns, villages, among other governmental entities are legally considered “creatures” of a state and must abide by the Freedom of Information statute in that state. The probe of how governments and government agencies on Long Island are following FOIL was conducted by journalist Tim Bolger, Freedom of Information chair for PCLI.
The average grade for Long Island governments and agencies was a C. Suffolk County government received a C+ in the investigation.
As for villages in the Town of Smithtown, Nissequogue received a B and the Village of the Branch a D.
Said the report card regarding Nissequogue: “Three business days after we emailed out request to the village, it scored points when the clerk emailed its payroll list and board meeting minutes. It lost a point for not maintaining a subject matter listing….In the helpfulness category, it got a point for its speedy reply and sending the board meeting agendas that it’s not required to maintain but got no points for not having information on its website on how to file a FOIL request.”
There was a follow-up by PCLI asking for comments by all governments and government agencies on their ratings. Nissequogue Village Clerk Maryjane Kenney said: “Hopefully, this information will help in raising our score.”
As for the Village of The Branch, “Nine business days after we emailed our request to the village, its clerk wrote back to acknowledge it and note that the 17 pages of documents will cost $4.25. After we mailed the check, the village scored points for sending its payroll list and board meeting minutes,” said the report card. “It got a half point for partially emailing its response. It got a half point for its response time. It got a half point because we had to follow up once for missing documents in its initial reply. It lost a point for neither providing a written FOIL policy nor maintaining a subject matter listing. It got a point in the helpfulness category for having information on its website on how to file a FOIL request.”
Mayor Mark Delaney of The Branch was not happy with its grade: His comment: “If you or your organization is looking to grade municipalities on transparency then I would give yours an ‘F’ as we hold advertised public meetings regularly (which I have never seen you at), we have office hours where you can come and ask any question you like (again to my knowledge you have never availed yourself of that) and my cell phone number is on the website for anyone to use (I have never received a call from you that I am aware of). Utilizing FOIL requests instead of simply “showing up” is certainly within your rights but puts an unnecessary burden on a part time office staff that, like the rest of us in small village government, are largely volunteers. We would prefer to spend our time serving our residents and I think they would agree. I would argue that our residents enjoy a level of transparency that county and state government are simply incapable of.”
(The Town of Smithtown “did not respond to a request for comment on its grade,” said the report card.)
Receiving an F was a village just to the south of Smithtown—Islandia, in northern Islip Town. Said the report card: “After we emailed our request twice, sent a copy by mail and called, the village sent a letter indicating that we would receive a response in 20 days, but that deadline passed without an update. For that, the village lost a point for response time, lost another point because we had to follow up more than three times, and, because the lack of response was considered a denial, it lost another point because we had to file an appeal in which it neither provided a written denial nor identified its appeals officer….The village did not respond to a request for comment on its grade.”
On a personal note: I am very proud of this investigation by PCLI. In 1974, I led the founding of the press club, now one of the biggest chapters in the Society of Professional Journalists, and was its first president. I moved on this after reading an article about a reporter jailed for not divulging a source. I thought there was a need for the excellent journalists on Long Island to get together in the cause of freedom of the press and the media’s role to watchdog power. A sterling example of this is the FOIL investigation by PCLI.
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.