Politics & Government

Letter: Cut Down on Village FOIL Requests By Answering Questions

Greenport residents says that the village clerk would not be so bogged down by Freedom of Information Law requests if Mayor David Nyce would answer more questions directly.

I attended Monday night'smeeting at which Clerk Sylvia Pirillo, during her report to the board, displayed a folder that was 16 to 18 inches tall.

She claimed the folder contained all the FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) requests she had received over the last year. She also claimed (and I do not dispute it) that to fulfill those FOIL request takes time and effort away from some other duties she could have been performing.

The Village Board wholeheartedly and with great enthusiasm agreed with her assessment of the current FOIL abuses. Her inference with her display of the files was that three or four people generate the majority of requests and those requests were frivolous.

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I would suggest that the clerk's annoyance is directed at the wrong people and the reason for the inordinate number of requests is directly related to this mayor's refusal to share information with the public — who has a right to know.

If the mayor did not withhold information and displayed a willingness to answer taxpayer questions, the requests for information from the clerk's office would diminish enormously. Her conversation should be with the mayor and not directed at the press or assembled public. She should remind him that the more questions he answers from the public, the less FOIL request she would get.

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The people, whether you agree or not, have the right to have their questions answered, and the village can do it the hard way for the clerk or the easy way, as always it's their choice.

 — John Saladino, Greenport


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