FOILed Again, and Again, and Again
Good for Buffalo News editor Margaret Sullivan, calling out Mayor Byron Brown for his administration’s habit of stonewalling on the release of public records to the press.
We’ve been complaining about the problem for two years, and we published a cover story about the problem in February 2008. One AV editor was forced to FOIL minutes to a meeting of the Planning Board, which usually posts its minutes online, when the links to the minutes he needed were broken.
I had always imagined that Brown administration officials treated us more poorly than they did the News, because we’re smaller and have fewer resources with which to demand our rights under the law. I guess I was wrong.
Out of fairness, however, one city agency has always responded quickly to FOIL requests: BERC, under both Rich Tobe and his successor Brian Reilly, has never dragged out the process past deadlines, always provided the documents requested. The law department, too, under Alisa Lukasiewicz, was generally quick to respond, at least if the documents requested had been generated in the law department.
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More of the same from City Hall. It will probably take 70 days to reply to a request because it takes at least that long to have a patronage worker hire an assistant to look up the information and then misplace it.
Comment by Ex-Buffalo Resident — August 10, 2009 @ 10:39 am
It is interesting to note that the two officials out of three cited favorably have both left the city’s employ.
Comment by BuffaloRandy — August 10, 2009 @ 12:18 pm
Tobe was forced out because he refused to LIE and it remains unclear why Alisa left, certainly something scumbaggy going on, she was not in with the liars like Casey, Cutler, Brown et al. Cutler was seen at Towne Rest meeting with a Cuomo campaign manager, there’s not much to ponder what those two were scheming up for Lord Byron.
Comment by Mike — August 10, 2009 @ 6:53 pm
David Franzyk is going to be the next Mayor by default?
Comment by Joe — August 10, 2009 @ 6:54 pm