FOIL AO 19642

From:                      Freeman, Robert J (DOS)
Sent:                        Tuesday, January 23, 2018 9:59 AM
To:
Subject:                   RE: FOIL Question

 

Dear :

You have raised a question concerning the propriety of a response to a request for records of the Village of Mineola. According to your communication, the Village sells parking permits for its parking facilities in the vicinity of the Long Island Railroad station. In response to your request for the names and addresses and such other items that may be included in a permit application, the Village provided a list consisting of residents' first names, street names with no numbers, and the make, model and year of their vehicles. You wrote that you specified in the request that the list would not be used for solicitation or fund‐raising purposes.

As a general matter, the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) is based on a presumption of access. All government agency records are available, except those records or portions of records that fall within one or more exceptions to rights of access appearing in §87(2).

It has consistently been advised by this office that the identities of those to whom permits or licenses have been conferred are public. The issuance of a permit or license ordinarily indicates that a person has met the requisite qualifications or criteria needed to obtain the permit or license. In the context of your request, a requirement appears to be residency in the Village of Mineola. Assuming that to be so, I believe that the first and last names and residence addresses, including street numbers, of permit holders must be disclosed to comply with law.

I point out that §87(2)(b) of FOIL authorizes an agency to withhold records or portions thereof when disclosure would constitute "an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy" and that §89(2)(b) includes a series of examples of unwarranted invasions of personal privacy. One of those examples pertains to the disclosure of a list of names and addresses if the list would be used for solicitation or fund‐raising purposes [§89(2)(b)(iii)]. Since you specified that the list would not be used for those purposes, again, in my view, it must be disclosed with the items to which you referred. It is also noted that the Village may, pursuant to §89(3)(a) of FOIL, require an applicant seeking a list of names and addresses to certify in writing that the applicant will not use a list of names and addresses for solicitation or fund‐raising purposes, nor will the list be given to any other person to be used for either or those purposes.

I hope that I have been of assistance.
Bob Freeman cc