Public documents should be easy to obtain, but that’s not always the case. While New York’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) is actually pretty open in theory, in practice, it lacks teeth.

That’s a problem, as many people and organizations just don’t have the wallet to compete with local, state and federal governments. It’s also a double-edged sword to bring a lawsuit against an entity, when you’re funding your opponent with taxes.

Although that’s not likely to change, I’d like to see the state Committee on Open Government actively providing education to public employees responsible for making the decisions.

Having worked with many school and municipal employees over the years, I am often able to obtain documents without filing a formal public records request. I really only take that route when other paths have failed.

I’ve certainly been wrongly denied access to documents that should have been released, at least in the opinion of the Committee on Open Government. But aside from filing multiple appeals and informing the public of a denial, I’ve never had the resources to pursue legal action and quite frankly, it shouldn’t come to that. To be fair, I’ve also been rightfully denied requests as well.

One of the more recent changes to open meetings law I was initially excited about was a 2021 amendment that records should be made available to the public at least 24 hours before a public meeting, to the extent practicable.

It says records may be available for a reasonable fee or by posting them online.

“The Law addresses two types of records: first, those that are required to be made available pursuant to FOIL; and second, proposed resolutions, law, rules, regulations, policies or amendments thereto.”

When either is scheduled to be discussed during an open meeting, the law requires that they be made available to the public, “to the extent practicable, at least 24 hours prior to the meeting.”

This is important, as school boards, town councils and county legislatures may pass resolutions without much discussion. When this happens, there has almost certainly been more information provided to the lawmakers than we see at the meeting, which leaves us with a lot of questions.

The 2021 amendment also says municipalities and schools with the resources to make documents available should. That’s another area I believe we could see some improvement in locally.

“If the agency in which a public body functions maintains a regularly and routinely updated website and utilizes a high speed internet connection,” records scheduled to be discussed “shall be posted on the website to the extent practicable at least 24 hours prior to the meeting,” the law says.

Don’t get me wrong, I think most lawmakers and public employees are acting in a manner they believe is right and nine times out of ten, when I request a public document that I should have access to, I get it. I don’t think records requests are usually being denied out of malice, but I do think there should be better education available to our gatekeepers because the general public should not have to work very hard to get access to documents they are entitled to.

Jimmy Lawton is news editor of North Country This Week and NorthCountryNow.com.