Public access to information in N.Y. better but has room to improve
June 8, 2008
Public access to information in N.Y. better but has room to improve
For too many years, the state Legislature pushed needed changes to the state Freedom of Information Law to the back burner. Actually, it was the burner in back of the back burner.
But that's changed for the better in recent years. The FOI law has had several valuable upgrades including a bill, passed by the Senate last week, to require state agencies to make public documents available at least three days before they're to be discussed at a public meeting. Perhaps more important is a bill requiring agencies to include planning for public access when they design new information systems.
Put these atop Project Sunlight at the state Attorney General's Office — its mission is to get more state databases online — and a similar initiative at the state Comptroller's Office, and you have genuine progress in Albany.
There are gaping holes, though. The Legislature still exempts itself from many of the standards of open government it enforces on others. The Capitol remains a bastion of backroom dealing. FOI improvements haven't changed that.
Also, government at all levels, but local government especially, is still slow to use the full potential of the Web to open documents, to create searchable archives. This newspaper, through its RocDocs online feature, is making data available. But government should be doing more of this on its own.
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