ALBANY, NY — Reinvent Albany has released a report that examines the performance of six New York State government units in responding to open records requests made under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).

The report, “Listening to FOIL 2024: Lessons from Six NYS Agencies,” found that most agencies take more than the 20 days required by state law to provide requested records. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has a backlog of requests that are over a year old, while the State Board of Elections has a surprisingly fast turnaround time of only four days, on average. Reinvent Albany has recommended that the governor issue an executive order requiring agencies to treat FOIL as a core service and implement a truly Open FOIL platform where “release to one, release to all” is used to publish public records. 

The group also suggested that the state should pass legislation requiring basic information about FOIL be collected and published. The report also highlighted FOIL requests to the State Board of Elections from national groups engaged in denying election results and seeking to discredit the voting process in New York.

Reinvent Albany urged government agencies to consider responding to records requests as a core service, rather than an afterthought or arbitrary burden, and to collect and publish data about requests to better manage their efforts.