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SCHENECTADY
Public’s requests for documents triple
Council considers buying software to meet demand
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

Public documents have become popular reading.
From the annual budget to lists of the top-paid city employees, residents are asking for more documents than ever before at City Hall.
    In 2004, just 379 requests were filed through the Freedom of Information Act each year. By 2011, that had nearly tripled to 1,024 requests.
    Each request must be acknowledged, filed with the correct departments and tracked to make sure those departments respond in a timely manner. Documents must be reviewed to search for any information that should be redacted — such as Social Security numbers — and then photocopied and given to the requester.
    It’s become such an encompassing task that one Law Department worker is now spending all her time tracking down documents and delivering them.
    Now the City Council is considering new software that could automate most of the process at a cost of $250 a month, plus a $1,500 setup fee.
    That would allow employee Maryanne McCutcheon to handle the requests in about 12 hours a week, rather than spending all her time on the task.
    “In essence, I’d be able to pick up two-thirds of a person for very little money,” Corporation Counsel John Polster told the council during Monday’s committees meeting.
    He wants to buy Government QA, a program that would run through the city’s website.
    One drawback is that those fi ling a request would have to fi gure out which departments are most likely to have the information they want. The software would then send the request to those departments, automatically send an acknowledgement to the requester, and notify McCutcheon. If the departments don’t send the documents back within 10 days, the program would again notify McCutcheon to investigate the delay.
    Generally, all she would have to do is review documents for potential redaction.
    Polster said he needs to free her from document requests to spend as much time as possible on the hundred foreclosures the city is filing this year.
    “That’s going to be a monumental undertaking,” he said.
    All of the Law Department workers are focusing on the city’s blight — bringing landlords to court over code violations, prosecuting violations of the city’s laws regarding vacant buildings and foreclosing on tax-delinquent properties. ......................>>>>............................>>>>......................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00901&AppName=1

LOOKED UP THE WORD REDACTED....

Rotterdam  FOILs  redacted...... an attorney must read it before it is handed out to the person who

requested it.......in other words, by blacking out certain words and names....there is no comprehension of what the FOIL concludes

or means....t....therefore, it will take more than 5 days. (time frame for Rotterdam as stated to an individual)

Waiting is a problem especially if the FOIL is going to be redacted....

The TC has privy to all this information....therefore, when the person requesting the FOIL , receives it,  it presents

a false sense of information......and at the dscression of the TC and the attorney....

Is this legal ???.....once one foils, doesn't that person have a right to ALL information and not just selected

words/names..????    Civil rights are violated if the FOIL does not give one the true information as requested....????

Conspiracy..... coercion.....what do you call it???

In closing, there doesn't seem to be a problem to publicize information wher it hits in the pockets of the taxpayers....