FOIL-AO-16957

                                                                                                January 23, 2008

 

 

E-MAIL

TO:                 

FROM:            Camille S. Jobin-Davis, Assistant Director

The staff of the Committee on Open Government is authorized to issue advisory opinions.  The ensuing staff advisory opinion is based solely upon the facts presented in your correspondence.

Dear

            We are in receipt of your request for an advisory opinion concerning application of the Freedom of Information Law to requests made to Binghamton University, specifically for bid tabulation sheets for intercollegiate athletic transportation submitted by the successful bidder.  It is our understanding that such sheets were submitted in conjunction with bids opened on July 23, 2007, and that they were made part of a contract that is currently in effect.  Your appeal following a denial of access to the tabulation sheets was denied in September of 2007 because the contract “has yet to be approved and is under review by the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the State Comptroller.”  To date, the requested sheets have not been made available to you.  We believe that such sheets should have been made available to you in a timely manner subsequent to the bid opening, and we offer the following comments.

            First, the Freedom of Information Law pertains to agency records, and §86(4) of the Law defines the term "record" expansively to mean:

"...any information kept, held, filed, produced, reproduced by, with or for an agency or the state legislature, in any physical form whatsoever including, but not limited to, reports, statements, examinations, memoranda, opinions, folders, files, books, manuals, pamphlets, forms, papers, designs, drawings, maps, photos, letters, microfilms, computer tapes or discs, rules, regulations or codes."

            Therefore, as soon as a bid or any other documentation is created by or comes into the possession of an agency, it constitutes a "record" that falls within the coverage of the Freedom of Information Law.  This is not to suggest that a bid must be disclosed immediately upon receipt by an agency, but rather that it is subject to rights of access conferred by the Freedom of Information Law.

            Second, as a general matter, the Freedom of Information Law is based upon a presumption of access.  Stated differently, all records of an agency are available, except to the extent that records or portions thereof fall within one or more grounds for denial appearing in section 87(2)(a) through (j) of the law.

            As indicated in the University’s belated denial of your request, most relevant with respect to access to bids and related records is §87(2)(c).  That provision permits an agency to withhold records or portions thereof that:

"if disclosed would impair present or imminent contract awards or collective bargaining negotiations..."

            In our view, the key word in §87(2)(c) is "impair", and the potential for harm or impairment as a result of disclosure is the determining factor regarding the propriety of a denial under that provision.

            In the context of your letter, if, for example, an agency seeking bids receives a number of bids and related records, but the deadline for their submission has not been reached, premature disclosure of the records to another possible submitter might provide that person or firm with an unfair advantage vis a vis those who already submitted bids.  Further, disclosure of the identities of bidders or the number of bidders might enable another potential bidder to tailor his bid in a manner that provides him with an unfair advantage in the bidding process.  In such a situation, harm or "impairment" would likely be the result, and the records could justifiably be denied.  However, after the deadline for submission of bids or other records has been reached, often the passage of that event results in the elimination of harm.  As such, bids may be available, depending upon the attendant facts, even prior to an official bid opening or a determination to make an award.  Further, it has been held that bids or proposals are available after a contract has been awarded, and that, in view of the requirements of the Freedom of Information Law, "the successful bidder had no reasonable expectation of not having its bid open to the public" [Contracting Plumbers Cooperative Restoration Corp. v. Ameruso, 105 Misc. 2d 951, 430 NYS 2d 196, 198 (1980)].  In a decision dealing specifically with records sought in relation to the RFP process, it was held by the Appellate Division that "once the contract was awarded...the terms of [the] RFP response could no longer be competitively sensitive" [Cross-Sound Ferry v. Department of Transportation, 219 AD2d 346, 634 NYS2d 575,577 (1995)].

            Further, the Freedom of Information Law provides direction concerning the time and manner in which agencies must respond to requests.  Specifically, §89(3) of the Freedom of Information Law states in part that:

"Each entity subject to the provisions of this article, within five business days of the receipt of a written request for a record reasonably described, shall make such record available to the person requesting it, deny such request in writing or furnish a written acknowledgement of the receipt of such request and a statement of the approximate date, which shall be reasonable under the circumstances of the request, when such request will be granted or denied...”

            It is noted that new language was added to that provision on May 3, 2005 (Chapter 22, Laws of 2005) stating that:

“If circumstances prevent disclosure to the person requesting the record or records within twenty business days from the date of the acknowledgement of the receipt of the request, the agency shall state, in writing, both the reason for the inability to grant the request within twenty business days and a date certain within a reasonable period, depending on the circumstances, when the request will be granted in whole or in part.” 

            Based on the foregoing, an agency must grant access to records, deny access in writing, or acknowledge the receipt of a request within five business days of receipt of a request.  When an acknowledgement is given, it must include an approximate date within twenty business days indicating when it can be anticipated that a request will be granted or denied.  If it is known that circumstances prevent the agency from granting access within twenty business days, or if the agency cannot grant access by the approximate date given and needs more than twenty business days to grant access, however, it must provide a written explanation of its inability to do so and a specific date by which it will grant access.  That date must be reasonable in consideration of the circumstances of the request.

            The amendments clearly are intended to prohibit agencies from unnecessarily delaying disclosure.  They are not intended to permit agencies to wait until the fifth business day following the receipt of a request and then twenty additional business days to determine rights of access, unless it is reasonable to do so based upon “the circumstances of the request.”  It is our perspective that every law must be implemented in a manner that gives reasonable effect to its intent, and we point out that in its statement of legislative intent, §84 of the Freedom of Information Law states that "it is incumbent upon the state and its localities to extend public accountability wherever and whenever feasible."  Therefore, when records are clearly available to the public under the Freedom of Information Law, or if they are readily retrievable, there may be no basis for a delay in disclosure.  As the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, has asserted:

"...the successful implementation of the policies motivating the enactment of the Freedom of Information Law centers on goals as broad as the achievement of a more informed electorate and a more responsible and responsive officialdom.  By their very nature such objectives cannot hope to be attained unless the measures taken to bring them about permeate the body politic to a point where they become the rule rather than the exception.  The phrase 'public accountability wherever and whenever feasible' therefore merely punctuates with explicitness what in any event is implicit" [Westchester News v. Kimball, 50 NY2d 575, 579 (1980)].

            In a judicial decision concerning the reasonableness of a delay in disclosure that cited and confirmed the advice rendered by this office concerning reasonable grounds for delaying disclosure, it was held that:
“The determination of whether a period is reasonable must be made on a case by case basis taking into account the volume of documents requested, the time involved in locating the material, and the complexity of the issues involved in determining whether the  materials fall within one of the exceptions to disclosure.  Such a standard is consistent with some of the language in the opinions, submitted by petitioners in this case, of the Committee on Open Government, the agency charged with issuing advisory opinions on FOIL”(Linz v. The Police Department of the City of New York, Supreme Court, New York County, NYLJ, December 17, 2001).

            If neither a response to a request nor an acknowledgement of the receipt of a request is given within five business days, if an agency delays responding for an unreasonable time beyond the approximate date of less than twenty business days given in its acknowledgement, if it acknowledges that a request has been received, but has failed to grant access by the specific date given beyond twenty business days, or if the specific date given is unreasonable, a request may be considered to have been constructively denied [see §89(4)(a)].  In such a circumstance, the denial may be appealed in accordance with §89(4)(a), which states in relevant part that:

"...any person denied access to a record may within thirty days appeal in writing such denial to the head, chief executive, or governing body, who shall within ten business days of the receipt of such appeal fully explain in writing to the person requesting the record the reasons for further denial, or provide access to the record sought."

            Section 89(4)(b) was also amended, and it states that a failure to determine an appeal within ten business days of the receipt of an appeal constitutes a denial of the appeal.  In that circumstance, the appellant has exhausted his or her administrative remedies and may initiate a challenge to a constructive denial of access under Article 78 of the Civil Practice Rules.

            On behalf of the Committee on Open Government, we hope this is helpful to you.

                                                                                   
CSJ:tt

cc:  Stacey Hengsterman
Barbara Scarlett