Turner needs to understand FOIL

PHOTOGRAPHER: Letters to the Editor

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Re May 31 article, “Former Spa City commission member denied request to view charter ballots”:

Bob Turner, former chairman of the previous Saratoga Springs Charter Review Commission, wrongly accuses Saratoga County Board of Elections Commissioners Bill Fruci and Willliam Schiera of denying his most recent Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request for images of ballots cast in last November’s charter vote.

But Commissioners Fruci and Schiera had nothing to do with the denial of Turner’s FOIL request.

If Mr. Turner had bothered to get a better understanding of the FOIL process, he would have known that Saratoga County, like other government agencies, has a FOIL officer who reviews requests for documents and renders decisions. He is clearly identified on the county website. Employees of other departments aren’t involved in that process.

All he had to do was look at the reply he received, which didn’t come from the Board of Elections.

Mr. Turner doesn’t seem to understand the FOIL process in general, as the decision he received pointed out that one of the reasons his most recent request was denied was because it was a duplicate of a previous request and had “not been appealed to the furthest extent permissible under the law.”

One would hope that in the future, Mr. Turner, a Skidmore government professor who teaches a course on local politics, would do his homework before he acts and speaks to the press. In the meantime, he owes Commissioners Fruci and Schiera an apology.

Jane Weihe

Saratoga Springs