Saturday, October 22, 2011

DeBlasio investigating FOIL issues

From the NY Times:

The New York City public advocate, Bill de Blasio, said Wednesday that he was starting an investigation into city agencies’ responses to the state’s Freedom of Information Law requests because he was concerned that the agencies were taking too long to release public information.

Mr. de Blasio said he also planned a new push for a City Council bill, introduced by his office last year, that would require agencies to report monthly how many requests they had received and how the requests were handled.

“It’s just gotten ridiculous lately,” Mr. de Blasio said. He cited a request his own office made to the Education Department last November, asking for documentation on delays in school bus service.

“We get a lovely letter every month telling us they’re working on it,” Mr. de Blasio said, but the department has still not provided the documentation.

Mr. de Blasio, who is considering a run for mayor, said his office was planning to send letters to each of the city’s commissioners, asking for a breakdown of all the FOIL requests received in the first quarter of 2011, including how quickly the agency responded and whether the request was granted.

He said that over the last two decades, some mayoral administrations “have thought it was clearly their responsibility to follow this law” while others withheld information.

But, he said, “the bottom line here is: This is not an optional matter, and we have to stop letting people get away with it.”

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Hey Bill cb 7 is infamous for ignoring FOIL.

Anonymous said...

How about the amout of FOIL Bloomy ignores????

Anonymous said...

DeBlasio is a Working Family Party's shill. He's surfacing now because it's going to be re election time soon.

get rid of him. He's got Acorn & Working Family Party people working in his office.

Anonymous said...

CB7 was actually found guilty several months ago for violation of NY state foil, but no action was ever taken against anyone on the Board for blatantly breaking the law.

Anonymous said...

That report on the city agency handling of FOIL requests will need a FOIL request for you to see it, Bill.

Anonymous said...

Useless person in a do-nothing job.

Anonymous said...

DeBlasio needs more professional aid, like JUDICIAL WATCH.ORG.10/18/11
see:" Judicial Watch obtains documents detailing secret Dept of Justice transparency workshop."

"i will usher in a new era of open government." Barack Obama

"There is a scandalously wide gap between B.Obama's rhetoric on transparency and the secret policies of his administration." Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch

Anonymous said...

Another unbiased source heard from.

Anonymous said...

do you believe in killing the messenger ?

try this source :big gov .com

"National Labor Relations Board withholds information in Boeing scandal.
NLRB stonewalling congressional committee and it's pro-union bias.by tom fitton

Anonymous said...

Anon No. 10:

I certainly don't believe in killing the messenger. Criticizing, yes. Killing, no. Big difference.