OGDENSBURG — A total of 177 Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests were submitted to the city of Ogdensburg in 2022, many seeking information on police and code enforcement matters.
The number of FOIL requests is a marked increase from 2021 when 125 were submitted.
According to information provided to The Journal through a FOIL request seeking the number of requests made last year and the topics associated with each request, a total of 39 requests were of various topics (not listed) while 39 were for police matters and another 20 were for code enforcement matters.
Information given to The Journal earlier in 2022 on the same topic showed that there were 16 requests for code enforcement and eight for the police department in 2021.
One topic that had been a popular over the last several years concerned the city manager and council. However, only four were received seeking information on the city manager and only one had been submitted for city council in 2022.
That’s a sharp decline from the previous year where there were 33. In 2018 and 2019, there had not been a single FOIL request made regarding the city manager and city council.
The following is a breakdown of FOIL requests in 2022, in order of submissions, and the numbers for the previous year:
- Police matters: 39, 8 in 2021;
- Code enforcement matters: 20, 16 in 2021;
- Comptroller: 18, 9 in 2021;
- Fire department matters: 16, 7 in 2021;
- Payroll records: 15, nothing listed in 2021;
- Employment matters: 13, 2 in 2021;
- Building permits: 8, nothing listed in 2021;
- Legal bills: 5, nothing listed in 2021;
- City manager, council: 5, 33 in 2021;
- City hall matter: 3, nothing listed in 2021;
- Fire department/police department matters: 2, nothing listed in 2021;
- FOIL requests: 2, nothing listed in 2021;
- Planning department matter: 1, 1 in 2021;
- Contract matter: 1, 3 in 2021.
FOIL requests are sent to City Clerk Cathy A. Jock, who is the FOIL officer for the city. Once a FOIL is received, a response is sent to the requestor to acknowledge receipt and provide an anticipated response date.
According to previous reports, it’s up to Jock to review to make sure the information could be released.
If any part of a FOIL is available, then she would reach out to the appropriate staff member to obtain the information requested. Once the information is received by Jock from city staff, she then redacts the documents, if required, and then completes the FOIL request by sending it to the requestor.
The time frame a FOIL request takes depends on the availability of the information and the number of FOILs worked on, on top of their regular work.
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