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Council Member Brewer discusses FOIL database legislation and Board of Elections appointment
0:59:57
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96 sec
Council Member Gale A. Brewer brings attention to Introduction 1235, which aims to improve the tracking and response times for Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests across city agencies. She highlights the current issues with FOIL request processing times and urges support for the legislation.
- Brewer cites a report by Reinvent Albany about the increasing number of FOIL requests and long response times
- She mentions that 16% of FOIL requests remain open after a year in the current administration
- Brewer also thanks supporters of Mark Landis, who will be the Manhattan representative on the Board of Elections
Gale A. Brewer
0:59:57
Thank you very much.
0:59:58
I'm calling, to your attention, intro twelve thirty five with council member Gutierrez.
1:00:03
It would require all city agencies to use a new and improved database for the freedom of information law requests and better track response times in an effort to speed up the sharing of public information.
1:00:16
It is true.
1:00:17
Doris, which is the municipal library basically, does have such a database, but very few agency all agencies that use it, and at least nine, do not.
1:00:27
You should know, for example, that the Department of Correction closes request for government documents after an average of four hundred and eighty five days, and the mayor's office is two hundred and eighty three days to respond.
1:00:41
That is not acceptable.
1:00:43
And I wanna say there's a new report.
1:00:45
Thank you.
1:00:45
Reinvent Albany, New York City Government flouting freedom of information law.
1:00:50
And it talks about requesting records from the New York City agencies are skyrocketing.
1:00:56
A 70,000 requests last year.
1:00:59
When I passed open records, that was some years ago, the portal was supposed to answer some of these questions.
1:01:07
I think also the agency should put more information up on the open data platform.
1:01:12
That would help a lot.
1:01:13
So I hope you will sign on to intro twelve thirty five.
1:01:17
It is outrageous that 16% of foil requests are still open after a year in this administration.
1:01:23
I also wanna say thank you, to all who supported Mark Landis, who will be the Manhattan Rep on the board of elections.
1:01:31
I'm sure he'll do a great job.
1:01:32
Thank you.