WPCNR WESTCHESTER VOICE. By Bob & Jenny Petrucci. June 20, 2004: The Freedom of Information Act is the last resort of reporters and the public when they are trying to find out something the government, be it The City of White Plains, the Westchester County Government, the State Legislature, the Governor's Office...even the Federal Government doesn't want public because it's embarrassing to them. Bob and Jenny have been FOIA-ing for years for information on county golf and Hudson Hills, and have relevant experience about just how cooperative government is with FOIA requests. Listen to their scathing commentary:
To: Bob Freeman, Executive Director - NY State Open Government Committee
Subject: FOIL foils FOIL
Hi, Bob:
Thanks for your response below. We all agree to disagree.....and we certainly do.
As you know, when we were first forced into filing Freedom of Information Law Requests, we did not start out with the mindset that it is a joke. If we had, we would not have pursued it. We expected fairness, reason, common sense, etc. (which in retrospect is naivete of the highest order, is it not?).
We've been "foiling" now for about 5 years. Therefore, our view has been "created" by our MANY, MANY personal experiences (which you and others should consider strongly...as your "customer feedback").
In short, and commonly so in our view, The Freedom of Information Law, as it is, shamelessly prevents what its very name implies to offer...The Freedom of Information.
And here is one of THE worst things about FOILaw....unless you are a government agency (with money, employees and power to spend on it) or a newspaper/media entity (with money, employees and power) or unless you are a lawyer or have a lawyer on retainer or have thousands of dollars to spend on legal fees, etc. etc......The Freedom of Information Law is TOTALLY STACKED AGAINST YOU..and we feel intentinally so as it is (We reserve judgement as to whether or not that was so at its conception).
The average person simply does not have a chance for justice thru FOIL because of the time, money, stonewalling, etc. etc. involved. Just remember how we got started in all this.
Further, as you know, there is no law that "requires" that FOIL Requests MUST be filed for public information. Anyone can simply ask/call a government agency for information...and receive it...IF the agency were willing.
And that was indeed the case here in Westchester...until the information was made public and it exposed enormous improprieties of content. Then, and only then, did the FOIL STONEWALL come down before us and were we TOLD to file FOIL Requests for ANY subsequent data.
Another case in point, we filed MANY FOILs to obtain golf rounds data for 2001 and 2002. The county TOTALLY REFUSED. So we contacted a newspaper and a legislator. They used our original FOIL Request to request that data for themselves. That data was supplied to them within a couple of weeks without a whimper.....WHILE WE HAVE STILL RECEIVED NOTHING from the county.
Further, you CLEARLY advised in a newspaper article that we were indeed entitled to that clearly public data. Yet, they still REFUSED, in essence saying that your "opinion" carried no weight (in fact, if we recall correctly, the county attorney said EXACTLY that of you in another newspaper article). They "dissed" you.
In our research view, should you or anyone take a poll/survey of "Filee" satisfaction, we feel that such would show that at least 75% of us would be dissatisfied, in part if not fully, with their results thru FOILaw. That would substantiate our view in fully disagreeing with your closing paragraph. We feel certain, to the contrary... that "positive results" are neither common nor prevalent but the exception.
We would be most interested in finding out the results of such a poll of ALL FOIL filees in NY State alone. In fact, we strongly recommend it, making the results public.
To us FOILaw has indeed become a "joke" (to be kind); to many others it is a total farce, a sham...if not worse (and after our experiences, who can blame them).
Government agencies, like any other criminal/violator of the law, will consistently break any law that does not have the strength of a penal code behind it. And FOIL has none (Plus, you and your committee have no enforcement power). That is THE rub. Further, Article78 actions favor the government agencies, not the general public.
In closing, when I emailed you and asked what was a "reasonable" response time to obtain an agency's fulfillment of FOILaw, you said you would show that by the length of time with which you responded. That response has taken ELEVEN MONTHS to arrive. Is that "reasonable"?
For us, no personal offense, the proof is in the pudding. IF the present FOIL system works as well as you attempt to profess, then why is it that you are so swamped that your response was not handled until eleven months after our request?
No, Bob, for the general populace (exceptions above), the Freedom of Information Law is a dismal failure; a theatrical vehicle used by government agencies so that they could hide behind FOIL's skirts, in NOT providing public information which that government agency views as being detrimental to it.
And, by all means, do consider such a "customer/filee results" survey. It can only be of benefit to you.
Thanks and best wishes,
Bob and Jenny Petrucci
Newsmail Editors
County Residents Protection Alliance
Resident Golfers Protection Group
