InicioMy WebLinkAcerca de2017-07-20 TSSERR Meeting Minutes
TSSER Meeting – July 2017 Bob Freeman, Committee on Open Government Mr. Freeman gave an overview of his department noting that it is a department of three established over 30 years ago. The website is www.dos.ny.gov/coog/index.html The website provides opinions on both FOIL and Open Meetings law as well as case law. Mr. Freeman encouraged everyone to take a look and use the site as well as call his office 518-474-2578; he or someone on his staff will almost always get back to you within 24 hours. Questions – Video conferencing in – question regarding whether a board member can attend a meeting via Skype or similar from their home or a restaurant. The question had come up from counsel that an opinion out there was a restaurant is not ok because people would be expected to purchase something. Mr. Freeman responded that if the place where the board member is Skyping in from is advertised and open to the public and the member is visible to the public, then yes. The member should be in the municipality and must be visible is so that the public could see whether the member had someone there feeding information or comments that were not public. So, for example, attending by phone only is not permissible. The restaurant and buying something was not persuasive. Reasonable description/Needle in the Haystack – Mr. Freeman had a number of questions surrounding the same type of scenario – reasonably describe the document. He gave the analogy of the phone book – if you have a phone book and someone requests all the Jones’ then that is reasonable and you are reasonably able to extract that information; if someone asks for all the Paul’s though, the information is not kept in that format and therefore you cannot reasonably extract that information. Receipts and abstracts – municipalities keep these records usually in summary form. If the abstract and receipts are reasonably available, they are public BUT are available during hours and times the clerk sets. The overriding theme was to be reasonable and not let someone harass you into providing something that is not reasonable. Inter/Intra Agency – Mr. Freeman explained the reasoning behind the ability to withhold documents that are between two government agencies or within an agency. The courts have said that to make all communications at the beginning levels of discussion open would infringe on the legislative ability to have a free flowing exchange of ideas. That being said, certain information is required to be disclosed as listed on the site; tabulations, final determinations, statistical information and instructions to staff that would affect the public. These communications can be provided and he suggests you ask yourself, what would happen if this were to be disclosed? Redactions – A lot of questions about redacting “personal” information such as phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses etc. Mr. Freeman opined that nothing is “personal” anymore; any number of sites such as Assessment and Taxes have residents full information open to the public, emails are so common that there should be no expectation of privacy especially given that many do not have full names. There are very few instances where “personal” information should be redacted and most have to do with law enforcement, check the website. Executive Session – Mr. Freeman said to forget the word “personnel” it is a myth. Discussing personnel is and should be done in open session. Executive session “to discuss the employment history of a particular person” is different and should be kept to the scope of that individual person, but, for example, looking at a job description, or talking about wages should be done in open session. In summary USE THE SITE, it is very helpful and of course, attend any presentations by Bob! NYS Archives -Sarah Durling, sarah.durling@nysed.gov Ms. Durling gave an overview saying that districts have been combined and representatives changing and she is our representative. The NYS Archives is working on an update to the SARA MU1 Schedule and any suggestions are welcome; if you look at a retention and think, why ? let us know. Ms. Durling reviewed the grant deadlines and sample applications are available on the website. Laserfische Work Processes Melissa and Alex Preview of Empower called Empower Spark will be held August 23, 2017 and include a taste of the classes available. Get powerpoint from them update on 10.2?????? Reviewed automated processes to save time and effort, but we need Forms Maureen Greg Potter, Tompkins County IT Director Mr. Potter talked about the support behind the scenes for TSSER and moving towards upgrading to 10.2 and Forms. A lot more involved than it sounds. Digital Signatures – The county is drafting a policy and awaiting approval. There are different levels of digital signatures and some might require a verification process while others wouldn’t. Municipalities should look at the policy when it is out and discuss with their boards. Julie and Alan, City of Ithaca Julie and Alan reported on their success with the FOIL requests and Parks and Events with Laserfische Forms are filled out and automatically sent to the person or department that needs to approve each section or action. It has saved numerous hours and also highlighted aspects that needed to be changed in the process. Julie encouraged everyone to take a look via the City website and especially to go to Empower because the classes cannot be beat and the information you get from other users is invaluable. Maureen Reynolds, Tompkins County Clerk Next grant is scanning large format maps and drawings! TOMPKINS COUNTYLASERFICHEUSERGROUP Thursday,July20,2017 8:30am - 1:00pm