Suggestion for NYS FOIL Requests

[Dominic Mauro]

New York State provides a form letter for FOIL requests, which I think reads a bit better than the one you're using at the moment. You can see their sample letters here: http://www.dos.ny.gov/coog/Right_to_know.html#requestsample

Most of my requests center around spreadsheets, which agencies just love to render as PDFs before emailing. You can omit the word spreadsheet for your template. New York State's FOI law requires agencies to make reasonable efforts to provide the data in the format you want, which I don't believe your current form letter takes advantage of.

Respectfully,

Dominic Mauro

Staff Attorney

Reinvent Albany

148 Lafayette St. New York, NY 10013

* * *

Dear Records Access Officer:

Please email the following record(s) in a machine-readable spreadsheet format or other non-PDF format if possible: 

$REQUESTHERE

If the requested records cannot be emailed to me due to the volume of records identified in response to my request, please advise me of the actual cost of copying all records onto a CD or floppy disk. If my request is too broad or does not reasonably describe the records, please contact me via email so that I may clarify my request, and when appropriate inform me of the manner in which records are filed, retrieved or generated.

If it is necessary to modify my request, and an email response is not preferred, please contact me at the following telephone number: $PHONE

If for any reason any portion of my request is denied, please inform me of the reasons for the denial in writing and provide the name, address and email address of the person or body to whom an appeal should be directed.

$SALUTATION