JOURNAL NEWS: It took 15 months to get all of the Westchester County records requested. Here's how it happened.

The law, which allows access to most government records, dictates that a public body has to acknowledge receipt of a request within five business days, then has 20 business days to say whether the records will be provided — and when. If a request is denied, the filer has 30 business days to appeal.

The Journal News submitted a FOIL request to Westchester County on Sept. 4, 2014, seeking records of payments made to private law firms for legal services to the county between Jan. 1, 2009, and Sept. 2, 2014.

The county acknowledged receipt of the request in an email five days later. The email also said the newspaper "will be provided with a response to your above referenced FOIL request on or before October 7, 2014."

On Oct. 7, 2014, the county told The Journal News that its reply to the request could not be provided before Nov. 21, 2014, because it would require time to locate the payment vouchers and redact information the county did not deem relevant. The county did not contact the newspaper by that date.

During November and December, The Journal News instead filed for and obtained outside counsel records from Rockland and Putnam counties through separate FOIL requests.

On Jan. 22, 2015, Westchester County asked for an "upfront payment" of $250 from the newspaper. The law allows a public entity to charge 25 cents per page for paper copies, and the county said it would have to provide more than 1,000 pages of records. The Journal News paid the fee on March 23.......

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http://www.lohud.com/story/news/investigations/2015/12/23/reporting-legal-fees/77714440/

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