Non-Profit to Continue Lawsuit Against Town of Oyster Bay After FOIL Request Fulfilled

The New York City based group filed the lawsuit earlier this month. Reclaim New York announced that they have decided to continue the lawsuit against the Town of Oyster Bay after they recently fulfilled the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request. The New York City based non-profit sued the Town as well as two Nassau County school districts for allegedly refusing to comply with New York State’s FOIL law by either denying or ignoring requests made by the group for information on contracts and expenditures. Last week, the Town of Oyster Bay fulfilled the request and provided the information to the group. However, the group will continue to pursue the lawsuit stating that the Town only fulfilled the request because of "negative press" from the lawsuit and they should "pay the attorney fees associated with the litigation," a press release from Reclaim reads. “No individual should have to do what Reclaim has done to produce this information," the press release reads. "New Yorkers should not have to beg or expend valuable time and money to force towns like Oyster Bay to comply with the law. " The Town said in a statement that they did not ignore the request, but rather "worked to successfully compile the roughly 1,400 documents that was requested in a timely manner." "There was never any intent on the Town’s part to not respond to this FOIL request. Contrary to their assertion, the recent compliance of this FOIL had nothing to do with the lawsuit that was filed, instead, it was the timely compilation of the documents that allowed the Town to ultimately release it," the statement read. According to the group's website, a total of 253 FOIL requests were sent to 13 Towns, 97 Villages, and 125 school districts on Long Island (and county offices) since start of their transparency project in May. Out of the 253 requests, a total of 57 were incomplete, 38 were denied, and 196 were completed. In addition to the Town of Oyster Bay, the group claims that the Towns of Islip, Riverhead, Babylon, and Hempstead also have not complied. The Town of Oyster Bay denied the request, the Town of Hempstead asked for $4,000 to provide the requested documents and the Town of North Hempstead complied "only after the project was announced," the group wrote on their website. In addition, about 25 percent of local Villages did not comply, 17 out of the 125 total school districts have ignored or denied the requests and 17 percent of school districts have still not sent back records, according to the group. "The Town of Oyster Bay’s refusal is particularly disturbing in light of scandals like Harendra Singh’s alleged bribery and loan scheme," the group wrote in a press release. Oyster Bay ignored a formal appeal, and follow up phone calls, after requesting a 20 day extension, according to the group. The Town of Oyster Bay told Newsday that they are "working on compiling the roughly 1400 pages of information and will notify the group of its availability as soon as possible.” The Elmont School District, which recently came under fire for paying Thomas Galante even after he was fired for abusing taxpayer dollars as CEO of the Queens Library, told the group that they did not have records that tracked payments to vendors and ignored a formal appeal from Reclaim New York, according to the release. Superintendent Al Harper said in a statement that “under state law, the district is not legally required to alter existing records by redaction or otherwise to respond to a FOIL request,” and also claimed that some of their records were "not in the format that the group requested," Newsday reports. The Manhasset School District denied Reclaim’s FOIL request for records they are "legally obligated to provide," the group said. Superintendent Charlie Cardillo told Newsday that they declined to release vendor information partially because it includes Social Security numbers and addresses which could not be redacted “without unreasonable time and effort." "We denied their request for those specific reasons, and not to avoid transparency about District expenditures,” they told Newsday. Reclaim New York stated that they plan to use the information they received from Long Island will be included in a new, searchable online database as a public resource will allow any citizen to see how their taxpayer dollars are being spent, the group said.
The Reclaim NY Website: http://www.reclaimnewyork.org/transparency/new-york-transparency-project/long-island-foil-results/
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More Information Here:

Newsday Article: Oyster Bay, 2 school districts, sued to disclose spending
http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/group-to-sue-3-nassau-communities-of-lack-of-transparency-1.11885184