Saratoga Springs leaders are at odds over how to help meet a growing number of Freedom Of Information Law requests.
At Tuesday’s city council meeting, Republican Mayor John Safford presented a resolution he said would alleviate some of the burden currently weighing down the city’s legal department coming from an increase in Freedom of Information Law requests.
“Garnet River will be processing the FOIL requests for the short-term until a new FOIL officer is hired. Through this work Garnet River is looking at our current FOIL process and determining where technology can be more efficient,” said Safford.
Safford tells WAMC the $10,000 contract would seek to implement artificial intelligence to streamline some of the FOIL request process.
“It was very straightforward, it’s a good thing for the city. We’re trying to solve the problem with new technology and for some reason Commissioner Moran and Commissioner Kuczynski were opposed to it. It’s a mystery to me,” said Safford.
With the commission form of government, each department has its own records.
After the city’s FOIL officer stepped down at the end of 2024, City Attorney Tony Izzo says the workload has grown exponentially.
“FOIL requests never used to be this voluminous but they are now and they’re much easier to make now in the digital age and we get quite a large number of them. Some of them are not complicated, others most assuredly are. And the technology side of it is very important to consider. So, the proposal that is before you this evening addresses perhaps not the entire problem, but certainly an aspect of it that needs to be addressed. There’s a way to deal with FOIL with additional personnel, additional technology. It all works together to alleviate what is a rather large workload,” said Izzo.
Democratic Public Works Commissioner Hank Kuczynski abstained from the vote.
“I know that I’ve run into assistant city attorney Izzo who has shared with me his night work in city hall reviewing six to eight FOIL requests in the evening. I’m not quite sure if this is enough, adequate or robust enough. And the reason I say this is that this may or may not be my last council meeting. And I don’t want to vote on this because I think we need a much more robust FOIL review and FOIL protection,” said Kuczynski.
Kuczynski is running a write-in campaign for a January 28th special election to fill the DPW seat through this year.
In December, Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran pleaded not guilty to charges alleging he unlawfully prevented the release of city records stemming from three FOIL requests made by city Republican Committee Chair Mike Brandi.
Moran, also a Democrat, opposed the measure.
“And the idea that you would think that we’re going to let you fix the problem you’re creating and propagating is silly, so there’s your answer. We’re going to have a very comprehensive solution to this,” said Moran.
“So, you’re saying that under the mayor’s office, after you have complained immensely, we’re trying to take a creative, new approach to solving the problem, that you’re against that?” said Safford.
“I am against you having anything to do with it because you’ve weaponized it and done nothing other than to use it as a tool against us since the day you walked in here,” said Moran.
“You are so wrong. So wrong about many things,” said Safford.
“Oh really, I’m so wrong. Really, John?” said Moran.
Democratic Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi was not present for the vote, but says she would have abstained and plans to audit the city’s FOIL’s process.
“So, we really want to make the process more effective, however I think this may be jumping the gun a little bit especially with A.I. because it’s such a nascent technology. And my concerns really are in the past whether it’s human error or—details of people’s personal records have been shared, details that shouldn’t have been shared that should have been redacted. I’m worried that if we leave it to A.I. something will get missed,” said Sanghvi.
The contract was not approved, with one no-vote and an abstention.