Beowulf Coal Cuomo (Empire State Development)

Dear Ms. Kaye,

This email addresses your September 24, 2019, FOIL request. The Freedom of Information Law ("FOIL") and the Committee on Open Government make clear that records sought in a FOIL request must be "reasonably described." (Public Officers Law §89(3)). In an August 20, 2012, advisory opinion, the Committee opined that "agency staff are not required to engage in herculean or unreasonable efforts in locating records to accommodate a person seeking records." and found it to be an "unreasonable burden ... to require an agency to review perhaps thousands of individual records in order to identify those portions of such records that are required to be made available." https://docs.dos.ny.gov/coog/ftext/2013/18949.html.

In the opinion cited above, the Committee was considering a request for e-mail communications between two individuals. In this instance, your request is extremely broad, as you seek:

any emails sent to or from or cc'ing Michael Enright, Jordan Love or Paul Prager of Beowulf Energy and/or Heorot Power sent to or from anyone in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office or Empire State Development between January 2015 and September 23, 2019.
and you have provided insufficient detail to allow us to search a narrower subset than the entire population of records of approximately 500 ESD employees over a broad period of time.

Therefore, Empire State Development finds that your request is not "reasonably described." Accordingly, we will not be able to respond to your request as submitted. Please feel free to resubmit your request with a clarified scope to permit us to conduct a diligent search for responsive records.

Pursuant to Public Officers Law §89(4)(a), you have thirty (30) days to appeal this determination. An appeal of any portion of this determination should be directed to Empire State Development's appeals officer, New York State Urban Development Corporation d/b/a Empire State Development, 633 Third Avenue, 37th Floor, New York, NY 10017, FOILAppeal@esd.ny.gov<mailto:FOILAppeal@esd.ny.gov>.

Kindly confirm receipt of this email. Thank you.

Records Access Officer
FOIL@esd.ny.gov<mailto:FOIL@esd.ny.gov>

IMPORTANT: This e-mail message and any attachments contain information intended for the exclusive use of the individual(s) or entity to whom it is addressed and may contain information that is proprietary, privileged, confidential and/or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any viewing, copying, disclosure or distribution of this information may be subject to legal restriction or sanction. Please immediately notify the sender by electronic mail or notify the System Administrator by telephone (518)292-5180 or e-mail (administrator@esd.ny.gov) and delete the message. Thank you.

Dear Ms. Kaye:

ESD is in receipt of the attached FOIL request seeking access to certain records of the New York State Urban Development Corporation ("UDC") doing business as Empire State Development ("ESD").

ESD is considering your request in accordance with the Freedom of Information Law (Public Officers law, Section 84 et seq.) and its rules concerning access to the records of the Corporation. ESD will notify you of the results of its search for responsive documents within twenty (20) business days.

Thank you.

Records Access Officer
FOIL@esd.ny.gov<mailto:FOIL@esd.ny.gov>

IMPORTANT: This e-mail message and any attachments contain information intended for the exclusive use of the individual(s) or entity to whom it is addressed and may contain information that is proprietary, privileged, confidential and/or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any viewing, copying, disclosure or distribution of this information may be subject to legal restriction or sanction. Please immediately notify the sender by electronic mail or notify the System Administrator by telephone (518)292-5180 or e-mail (administrator@esd.ny.gov) and delete the message. Thank you.

Dear Ms. Kaye,

This email addresses your October 14, 2019, FOIL request. The Freedom of Information Law (“FOIL”) and the Committee on Open Government make clear that records sought in a FOIL request must be “reasonably described.” (Public Officers Law §89(3)). In an August 20, 2012, advisory opinion, the Committee opined that "agency staff are not required to engage in herculean or unreasonable efforts in locating records to accommodate a person seeking records." and found it to be an “unreasonable burden … to require an agency to review perhaps thousands of individual records in order to identify those portions of such records that are required to be made available.” https://docs.dos.ny.gov/coog/ftext/2013/18949.html.

In the opinion cited above, the Committee was considering a request for e-mail communications between two individuals. In this instance, your request is extremely broad, as you seek:

any emails sent between November 1, 2015 and February 29, 2016 either:

- from Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office or Empire State Development to or cc'ing Michael Enright or Paul Prager, executives of Beowulf Energy and Heorot Power

- or sent to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office or Empire State Development from or cc'ing Michael Enright or Paul Prager, executives of Beowulf Energy and Heorot Power.

and you have provided insufficient detail to allow us to search a narrower subset than the entire population of records of approximately 500 ESD employees.

Therefore, Empire State Development finds that your request is not “reasonably described.” Accordingly, we will not be able to respond to your request as submitted. Please feel free to resubmit your request with a clarified scope to permit us to conduct a diligent search for responsive records.

Pursuant to Public Officers Law §89(4)(a), you have thirty (30) days to appeal this determination. An appeal of any portion of this determination should be directed to Empire State Development’s appeals officer, New York State Urban Development Corporation d/b/a Empire State Development, 633 Third Avenue, 37th Floor, New York, NY 10017, FOILAppeal@esd.ny.gov<mailto:FOILAppeal@esd.ny.gov>.

Kindly confirm receipt of this email. Thank you.

Records Access Officer

FOIL@esd.ny.gov<mailto:FOIL@esd.ny.gov>

IMPORTANT: This e-mail message and any attachments contain information intended for the exclusive use of the individual(s) or entity to whom it is addressed and may contain information that is proprietary, privileged, confidential and/or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any viewing, copying, disclosure or distribution of this information may be subject to legal restriction or sanction. Please immediately notify the sender by electronic mail or notify the System Administrator by telephone (518)292-5180 or e-mail (administrator@esd.ny.gov) and delete the message. Thank you.

Dear Ms. Kaye,

This email addresses your October 30, 2019, FOIL request. The Freedom of Information Law ("FOIL") and the Committee on Open Government make clear that records sought in a FOIL request must be "reasonably described." (Public Officers Law §89(3)). In an August 20, 2012, advisory opinion, the Committee opined that "agency staff are not required to engage in herculean or unreasonable efforts in locating records to accommodate a person seeking records." and found it to be an "unreasonable burden ... to require an agency to review perhaps thousands of individual records in order to identify those portions of such records that are required to be made available." https://docs.dos.ny.gov/coog/ftext/2013/18949.html.

In the opinion cited above, the Committee was considering a request for e-mail communications between two individuals. In this instance, your request is extremely broad, as you seek:

any emails sent between December 1, 2015 and January 29, 2016 sent from Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office or Empire State Development to or cc'ing Michael Enright or Paul Prager, executives of Beowulf Energy and Heorot Power and mentioning the following subjects:

Somerset
Cayuga
Lansing
coal power plant
Riesling Energy
Beowulf Energy
Heorot Power
data center
And, while you have provided a narrower date range than your previous requests and you have provided search terms, you still have provided insufficient detail to allow us to search a narrower subset than the entire population of records of approximately 500 ESD employees.

Therefore, Empire State Development finds that your request is not "reasonably described." Accordingly, we will not be able to respond to your request as submitted. Please feel free to resubmit your request with a clarified scope of the email accounts to be searched, namely the individual or individuals or the ESD department or regional office that would be reasonably likely to have corresponded with Michael Enright or Paul Prager, to permit us to conduct a diligent search for responsive records.

Pursuant to Public Officers Law §89(4)(a), you have thirty (30) days to appeal this determination. An appeal of any portion of this determination should be directed to Empire State Development's appeals officer, New York State Urban Development Corporation d/b/a Empire State Development, 633 Third Avenue, 37th Floor, New York, NY 10017, FOILAppeal@esd.ny.gov<mailto:FOILAppeal@esd.ny.gov>.

Kindly confirm receipt of this email. Thank you.

Records Access Officer
FOIL@esd.ny.gov<mailto:FOIL@esd.ny.gov>

IMPORTANT: This e-mail message and any attachments contain information intended for the exclusive use of the individual(s) or entity to whom it is addressed and may contain information that is proprietary, privileged, confidential and/or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any viewing, copying, disclosure or distribution of this information may be subject to legal restriction or sanction. Please immediately notify the sender by electronic mail or notify the System Administrator by telephone (518)292-5180 or e-mail (administrator@esd.ny.gov) and delete the message. Thank you.