Can one have trust in any Government, when that government defies the very laws that govern their responsibilities, and sworn oath of duties?
Can you trust that governing body, when they prevent YOU from YOUR BUSINESS? Government is our business
How can we trust, when there is no transparency of the workings of our servants? When they publicly denounce FOIL and OML, as if those that use these laws, to dare question them?
Questioning and being critical of the Government, is deeply engrained in our rights, yes even here in a small Village government.
When a Village Clerk, which is also the records access officer, is given advise directly from the Executive Director of Committee on Open Government, yet doesn't heed that advice, it is time to question the Board. As it is the board, that create such a compromise of division, between Government and trust of THE PEOPLE
Keeping one’s integrity, ethics and morals where do you draw the line? What risk is a public servant willing to do the bidding of officials?
Mon 2/4/2019 4:19 PM Freeman, Robert J (DOS) <Robert.Freeman@dos.ny.go RE: agenda Document request
Ms. Macera:
As you may be aware, the Open Meetings Law was amended several years ago to deal with the kind of issue to which you referred.
Many complained that they attended meetings but could not follow the discussion by the board without the documentation in possession of board members. That resulted in a recommendation offered by this office several years in succession until legislation was finally passed in 2011 and effective in February 2012. That provision, section 103(e) of the Open Meetings Law, pertains to records scheduled to be discussed during an open meeting.
When a record scheduled to be discussed during an open meeting, and the record is available under the Freedom of Information Law or consists of a “proposed resolution, law, rule regulations, policy or any amendment thereto”, it must be made available “to the extent practicable” on request prior to or at the meeting during which the record will be discussed. Further, when an agency maintains a website, “such records shall be posted on the website to the extent practicable…prior to the meeting.”
In an effort to encourage better compliance with law, a copy of this response is being sent to Ms. Penny, Village Clerk.
I hope that I have been of assistance.
Bob Freeman
NYS VIL Clerk https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/VIL/4-402
a. have custody of the corporate seal, books, records, and papers of the village and all the official reports and communications of the board of trustees;
b. act as clerk of the board of trustees and of each board of village officers and shall keep a record of their proceedings;
c. keep a record of all village resolutions and local laws;
§103. Open meetings and executive sessions. (a) Every meeting of a public body shall be open to the general public, except that an executive session of such body may be called and business transacted thereat in accordance with section one hundred five of this article. (b) Public bodies shall make or cause to be made all reasonable efforts to ensure that meetings are held in facilities that permit barrier-free physical access to the physically handicapped, as defined in subdivision five of section fifty of the public buildings law. (c) A public body that uses videoconferencing to conduct its meetings shall provide an opportunity for the public to attend, listen and observe at any site at which a member participates. (d) Public bodies shall make or cause to be made all reasonable efforts to ensure that meetings are held in an appropriate facility which can adequately accommodate members of the public who wish to attend such meetings. 1. Any meeting of a public body that is open to the public shall be open to being photographed, broadcast, webcast, or otherwise recorded and/or transmitted by audio or video means. As used herein the term “broadcast” shall also include the transmission of signals by cable. 2. A public body may adopt rules, consistent with recommendations from the committee on open government, reasonably governing the location of equipment and personnel used to photograph, broadcast, webcast, or otherwise record a meeting so as to conduct its proceedings in an orderly manner. Such rules shall be conspicuously posted during meetings and written copies shall be provided upon request to those in attendance. (e) Agency records available to the public pursuant to article six of this chapter, as well as any proposed resolution, law, rule, regulation, policy or any amendment thereto, that is scheduled to be the subject of discussion by a public body during an open meeting shall be made available, upon request therefor, to the extent practicable as determined by the agency or the department, prior to or at the meeting during which the records will be discussed. Copies of such records may be made available for a reasonable fee, determined in the same manner as provided therefor in article six of this chapter. If the agency in which a public body functions maintains a regularly and routinely updated website and utilizes a high speed internet connection, such records shall be posted on the website to the extent practicable as determined by the agency or the department, prior to the meeting. An agency may, but shall not be required to, expend additional moneys to implement the provisions of this subdivision. (f) Open meetings of an agency or authority shall be, to the extent practicable and within available funds, broadcast to the public and maintained as records of the agency or authority. If the agency or authority maintains a website and utilizes a high speed internet connection, such open meeting shall be, to the extent practicable and within available funds, streamed on such website in real-time, and posted on such website within and for a reasonable time after the meeting. For the purposes of this subdivision, the term “agency” shall mean only a state department, board, bureau, division, council or office and any public corporation the majority of whose members are appointed by the governor. For purposes of this subdivision, the term “authority” shall mean a public authority or public benefit corporation created by or existing under any state law, at least one of whose members is appointed by the governor (including any subsidiaries of such public authority or public benefit corporation), other than an interstate or international authority or public benefit corporation.
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