Source: https://docs.dos.ny.gov/coog/ftext/f8501.htm
Timestamp: 2017-10-21 01:20:53
Document Index: 131383079

Matched Legal Cases: ['§30', '§57', '§89', 'art 1401', '§87', '§1401']

Mr. Leslie A. Miller
2076 S. Maple Avenue
Ashville, NY 14710-9610
As you are aware, your letter of September 7 addressed to Peter Sullivan, Assistant Attorney General, has been forwarded to the Committee on Open Government. The Committee, a unit of the Department of State, is authorized to provide advice concerning the Freedom of Information and Open Meetings Laws.
In brief, your letter and related materials pertain to the inability of the public to obtain minutes of meetings of the Town of Ripley Planning Board. The clerk of the Board has apparently refused to release the minutes, notwithstanding requests for those records by members of the public, the news media and the Chairman of the Planning Board. In this regard, I offer the following comments.
In view of the foregoing, it is clear that minutes must be prepared and made available within two weeks of the meetings to which they pertain.
I point out that there is nothing in the Open Meetings Law or any other statute of which I am aware that requires that minutes be approved. Nevertheless, as a matter of practice or policy, many public bodies approve minutes of their meetings. In the event that minutes have been approved, to comply with the Open Meetings Law, it has consistently been advised that minutes be prepared and made available within two weeks, and that if the minutes have not been approved, they may be marked "unapproved", "draft" or "non-final", for example. By so doing within the requisite time limitations, the public can generally know what transpired at a meeting; concurrently, the public is effectively notified that the minutes are subject to change. If minutes have been prepared within less than two weeks, I believe that those unapproved minutes would be available as soon as they exist, and that they may be marked in the manner described above.
Second, §30 of the Town Law states in part that the town clerk: "Shall have the custody of all the records, books and papers of the town". Therefore, even though Planning Board minutes and other records may not be in the physical possession of the clerk, the clerk nonetheless would have legal custody of the records. Additionally, pursuant to the Local Government Records Law (Article 57-A, Arts and Cultural Affairs Law), the town clerk is the "records management officer," and §57.25 of the Arts and Cultural Affairs Law states in part that it is the responsibility of every local officer "to cooperate with the local government's records management officer on programs for the orderly and efficient management of records...".
Third, in a related vein, §89(1)(b)(iii) of the Freedom of Information Law requires the Committee on Open Government to promulgate regulations concerning the procedural aspects of the Law (see 21 NYCRR Part 1401). In turn, §87(1)(a) of the Law states that:
As such, the Town Board has the ability to designate "one or more persons as records access officer". Further, §1401.2(b) of the regulations describes the duties of a records access officer, including the duty to coordinate the agency's response to requests. In most towns, the town clerk has been designated as records access officer. If that is so in this instance, I believe that the town clerk has the authority to make initial determinations to grant or deny access to records in response to requests made under the Freedom of Information Law. If a person other than the clerk has been designated records access officer, that person would have the same authority and responsibility. In the context of the problem that you have encountered, I believe that the records access officer would have the authority either to acquire the minutes for the purpose of responding to a request or directing the Planning Board's secretary to disclose the records as required by law.
In an effort to enhance compliance with the Freedom of Information and Open Meetings Laws, copies of this opinion will be forwarded to Town officials. I hope that I have been of some assistance.