“I think it's incredibly important for the average citizen to understand what their rights and responsibilities are when it comes to information in this country. This workshop gave an overview of the fundamentals involved in making a FOIL-attempt, and peppered the somewhat dry information with vivid, personal experiences that have really mattered.” –Melissa Kondrak
“I thought the information discussed was very insightful, I think it might be worthwhile to maybe include someone with a different perspective like a lawyer who handles FOIL’s. There were a couple of times where I felt like a different perspective could have been helpful; a sense of what you might run into if you are going to FOIL an organization.”
Tysha Martin
Last Tuesday, the Coalition for Economic Justice facilitated a workshop entitled “Fun with Foil.” On hand, were seasoned “foilers” Geoff Kelly and Buck Quigley of the ArtVoice and Peter Reese Esq, a strong and active leader on open and transparent government.
The Freedom of Information Law or FOIL is a law that guarantees access to New York State agencies public records. The intent of this law is to make government more transparent and provide citizens with vital information regarding key decisions that affect their lives on a daily basis.
As with any law, enforcement is absolutely critical and if it’s left with monitoring and enforcement, it may not fully live up to its creator’s intentions. So goes the Freedom of Information Law. State Agencies can ignore your request or deny your request on procedural issues, or to stall a process. Often times unless individuals and organizations are willing and able to litigate, the information requested can and will be with held, which only reinforces the disconnect between citizens and their elected officials and public institutions.
Geoff, Buck and Pete’s combined experience provided participants with an exceptional history of the Freedom of Information Law, experienced based knowledge, procedural information and proper timeline, and concrete steps for how to draft a FOIL request.
The Coalition for Economic Justice has been using FOIL Requests to obtain information pertaining to the development of the waterfront in order to more fully understand the story of how the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation came to be, and how they were spending public money and on who. The information on contracts they had entered, board minute notes, helped weave a story which is still far from over. And as expected, there were several items that we requested that we were denied, despite our assertion that these are absolutely public.
It occurred to us and some of our coalition partners that drafting Foil Requests and the necessary follow up required a certain skill set that possibly needed cultivating. And through our own experiences, it became clear that to get what you needed meant asking the right questions. Drafting FOIL Requests is a type of art form. There’s some absurdity in this, that it’s necessary to go to such significant lengths to get information that is legally public, but it’s proof yet again, that our laws and government in some ways are not set up to protect the people it serves. This is just one small, yet critical tool in effecting change and demanding a more transparent, accessible, and accountable government. In other words, a government that truly acts on for and by the people.
Please stay tuned for the next workshop dates!!
For more information on the Freedom of Information Law, check out these resources-
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment