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Clearly frustrated, Paul Wolf went over his New York Coalition for Open Government's latest report with a message in mind: Governing bodies across all levels regularly shrug off the New York Open Meetings Law, and have done so for years.
"New York has an open government crisis and we need reform now," he said at the beginning of a recent Zoom meeting highlighting the results of the report. It's basically a compilation of open government statistics from 2021-22.
The coalition reported in 2022, 72% of the state's towns did not post documents from meetings online and 25% don't post recordings or minutes of meetings. Some 65% of county elections boards did not respond to emails or phone calls seeking information.
In 2021, 75% of municipal planning boards did not post documents from their meetings online. Only 25% of villages posted meeting minutes online, and 35% of villages didn't bother to post agendas for meetings.
The coalition also reviewed school districts in 2021, and found that 70% received a failing grade on the propriety of their executive session motions. In fact, 30% of school district boards didn't make a single executive session motion correctly.
"We have done a slew of reports (on various entities) and every single time we have done a report, the results have been dismal," Wolf said.
He said the coalition's new report offers "'statistical proof" of non-compliance across the state to the Open Meetings Law.
Wolf alleged that Gov. Kathy Hochul "is not aware of or does not have any interest in this crisis." The Legislature is similarly disinterested, while the state Attorney General regularly fights requests made under the Freedom of Information Law, he added.
The coalition's report makes eight suggestions for improving compliance with open government laws in New York.
¯ An amendment to the state Constitution should add the right to open government.
¯ All elected officials at the village, town, city, county and school board levels should be required to take 4 hours of annual training on the Open Meetings Law and Freedom of Information Law.
¯ Plaintiffs should be reimbursed for attorney fees if a court determines an executive session was improperly held.
¯ There should be a hearing officer system to address Open Meetings Law complaints and Freedom of Information Law appeals.
¯ State agencies should be required to file an annual report on the Freedom of Information Law requests they receive.
¯ The state's Committee on Open Government should be restructured to allow more stakeholders to make appointments. Currently, the governor fills nine of the 11 positions on the board.
¯ That committee should also get increased funding.
¯ Finally, legislate and fund a program in the attorney general's office to assist the public with Freedom of Information Law and Open Meetings Law complaints.
The full report is available on the open government coalition's website, www.nyopengov.org.