By Nick Buglione
While the 30-year-old landmark legislation will be getting most of the attention during Sunshine Week, a national celebration of the public¹s right to know March 13-19, Freeman, 58, deserves some kudos, too. As long as FOIL has been around, so has Freeman, guiding journalists and citizens through the nuances of this complex and ever-changing law.
³He is the Freedom of Information guru in the state,² said Carl Corry, president of the Press Club of Long Island, a chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. ³He¹ll tell you where you¹re right and where you¹re wrong.²
In the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, Congress passed the federal Freedom of Information Act, a law that guaranteed public access to government records. Shortly thereafter, states began tailoring their own freedom-of-information laws to cover all levels of municipal government, right down to local school boards.
In August 1974, Freeman, who had just gotten a job with the state Department of Social Services, was approached about being assigned temporarily to a new office created to oversee New York state¹s then recently enacted FOIL. ³I said that I didn¹t know anything about the law, and I was told, ŒThat¹s OK, nobody else does, either,¹² said the East Meadow High School alumnus in a telephone interview from his Albany office.
The position seemed like a perfect fit for Freeman, who graduated from Georgetown University in 1969 with a degree in foreign service and went on to earn a law degree at NYU in 1973. ³In college, I remember sitting in the dorms and talking to friends about how we were going to change the world,² he said. ³I certainly had been idealistic. Dealing with FOIL has been consistent with all those ideals.²
The board Freeman was chosen to counsel was then known as the Committee on Public Access to Records, and it had seven members ‹ three government officials and four public appointees. By 1976, he was named its permanent executive director. A year later, when New York and other states began passing the first open-meeting laws, forcing public access to the decision-making processes of government, the committee¹s name was changed to the Committee on Open Government.
As its executive director, Freeman fields questions on FOIL and lends his written opinion when a government body denies a petitioner access to records. He might also be described as the law¹s ambassador, since he gives 75 to 80 lectures around the state each year on the freedom-of-information process. With only two secretaries in his office, his can be an exhausting and frustrating job.
³I think most agencies try hard to comply, and some don¹t,² Freeman said. ³In some cases, I think they¹re stonewalling.² For instance, officials of a Suffolk County school district recently told a journalist that it would take a month and a half for them to turn over the superintendent¹s contract and W-2 form, he said. ³I am unsympathetic in that situation, because the law is so clear,² Freeman said. ³Those records are easy to find and are unquestionably public.²
Still, there¹s little he can do. Freeman lacks the power to force a government agency to turn over records, which has led some to complain that the law has no teeth. When citizens are denied FOIL requests, they can petition Freeman to render his opinion on whether the denial is justified. His opinion, however, is just that. It¹s not legally binding, and there is little to stop a government agency from ignoring it. Although the petitioner can choose to take the case to court, that¹s an often costly and time-consuming process.
³The law doesn¹t mean anything, because there¹s no muscle,² said Robert Zafonte, president of the East Meadow Civic Association, who has filed myriad FOIL requests over the years. ³If the agency denies the Freedom of Information request, it forces the petitioner to go on to [court] to get that agency to comply. No one will go to court, because it¹s too expensive and too lengthy.²
If Freeman had his way, he¹d have more power to enforce FOIL compliance. At the very least, a statute would be in place requiring a government agency to pay the legal fees when it loses an appeal in court. ³If the government is forced to pay attorney fees when it loses, that forces compliance,² he said.
Even with its flaws, Freeman believes FOIL works, for the most part. ³I think our [state] law is among the better freedom-of-information statutes in the nation,² he said, noting that modifications have been made along the way to strengthen it. ³Things have changed dramatically.²
Perhaps the most dramatic change came in 1978, when the language of FOIL was changed so that all government documents would be presumed open, with certain exceptions, such as if the information would be damaging to an individual or preclude a government agency from carrying out its duties. Prior to that, the law had only identified certain kinds of records as accessible. As technology redefined how records were kept, the law was also modified to include electronically stored documents.
Widely regarded as a FOIL expert, Freeman¹s advice and consultation has been solicited from officials around the world. He even assisted in the development of Japan¹s first open-records law, and has authored a number of articles and guides on FOIL.
Comments about this story? NBuglione@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 236.
Foil Filing
No matter what record you are trying to obtain or what level of government you are petitioning, filing a Freedom of Information request is essentially the same across the board. Here¹s how to do it:
n By law, every government agency in the state must have a designated records access officer.
n Contact that person and fill out a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request, specifying the records you want.
n Under the law, records are broadly defined as all information kept, held, filed, produced or reproduced by, with or for an agency, in any physical form. FOIL also applies to government records generated, received or maintained electronically.
n The agency has five business days to either grant or deny access to the records, or acknowledge receipt of the request and provide an approximate date when a decision will be reached.
n If access is granted, reviewing the records is free. Photo copies are chargeable, but they can not be more than 25 cents per page.
n If access is denied, you can contact Robert Freeman, executive director of the New York state Committee on Open Government, to review the case and render his opinion on whether the records should be made public.
n Any questions throughout the process can also be directed to Freeman at (518) 474-2158.
