Correspondence between ESD and BuzzFeed
| Submitted | March 30, 2015 |
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Communications
From: J.K. Trotter
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the New York State Freedom of Information Law (1977 N.Y. Laws ch. 933), I hereby request the following records:
All correspondence, dated between December 1 2014 and March 24 2015, between employees of the Empire State Development agency and employees or representatives of BuzzFeed, including and especially any legal counsel retained by BuzzFeed. Please limit this request to correspondence concerning the public disclosure, under the Freedom of Information Law or other provisions, of BuzzFeed’s application to the Excelsior Jobs Program.
Empire State Development released a copy of the application in March 2015 to news outlets, but the agency redacted portions of the document, including those containing information about BuzzFeed’s employee salaries, that were not redacted in a similar disclosure regarding Vice Media.
See this article about BuzzFeed: http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2015/03/8564735/backstory-buzzfeeds-new-york-tax-credits
See this article about Vice: http://gawker.com/here-is-vice-medias-salary-breakdown-1672760767
The FOIL request I am submitting today seeks any correspondence that would shed light on this discrepancy.
The requested documents (“correspondence”) include emails, letters, memoranda, agreements, contracts, and email attachments.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, and is not being made for commercial usage.
In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
J.K. Trotter
From: esd.sm.foil
Dear Mr. Trotter,
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 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 ten (10) business days.
Thank you.
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.
From: esd.sm.foil
Dear Mr. Trotter,
Please be advised that we are still processing the attached FOIL request. We hope to have a response to you on or before May 18, 2015.
Thank you.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 30, 2015. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thank you for your help.
From: Empire State Development
Dear Mr. Trotter,
Please be advised that we are still processing the attached FOIL request. We hope to have a response to you on or before May 18, 2015.
Thank you.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 30, 2015. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thank you for your help.
From: esd.sm.foil
Dear Mr. Trotter,
Please be advised that we are still processing the attached FOIL request. We hope to have a response to you on or before June 30, 2015.
Thank you.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 30, 2015. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thank you for your help.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 30, 2015. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thank you for your help.
From: esd.sm.foil
From: esd.sm.foil
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 30, 2015. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thank you for your help.
From: esd.sm.foil
Dear Mr. trotter
We seek clarification of your FOIL request for:
“All correspondence, dated between December 1 2014 and March 24 2015, between employees of the Empire State Development agency and employees or representatives of BuzzFeed, including and especially any legal counsel retained by BuzzFeed. Please limit this request to correspondence concerning the public disclosure, under the Freedom of Information Law or other provisions, of BuzzFeed’s application to the Excelsior Jobs Program.”
Our ability to search ESD accounts for responsive email correspondence is dependent on first identifying individual accounts to be searched. We cannot conduct a global search of all accounts with the “@esd.ny.gov” suffix, or the word “Buzzfeed”
The Committee on Open Government (“COG”) has opined on this kind of a request in an August12, 2012 Advisory Opinion (see http://docs.dos.ny.gov/coog/ftext/2013/18949.html) and noted that records sought must be “reasonably described” and that “agency staff are not required to engage in herculean or unreasonable efforts in locating records to accommodate a person seeking records.” Please note that in the August 12, 2012 Advisory Opinion, the COG advised on a request for “any and all email communications” between two individuals. By comparison, you are now seeking communications, in both electronic and non-electronic form, between perhaps dozens of ESD staff members and any number of persons and entities connected to Buzzfeed. We concur with the COG, which stated that “it may be more efficient to narrow the scope of your request.”
Thank You.
-
~WRD000
From: esd.sm.foil
Dear Mr. Trotter,
Please be advised that we are still processing the attached FOIL request. We hope to have a response to you on or before September 8, 2015.
Thank you.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 30, 2015. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 30, 2015. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: esd.sm.foil
Please provide us with another e-mail address, as we have forwarded this e-mail to you several times and it has bounced back undeliverable.
Thank you.
From: MuckRock
Hi,
It looks like there was a number dropped from the email address. The full correct email is requests@muckrock.com
Thanks,
Michael / MuckRock
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 30, 2015. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: esd.sm.foil
Dear Mr. Trotter,
Please be advised that we are still processing the attached FOIL request. We hope to have a response to you on or before November 10, 2015.
Thank you.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 30, 2015. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 30, 2015. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: esd.sm.foil
Dear Mr. Trotter,
Please be advised that we are still processing the attached FOIL request. We hope to have a response to you on or before December 10, 2015.
Thank you.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 30, 2015. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 30, 2015. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: esd.sm.foil
Dear Mr. Trotter,
Please be advised that we are still processing the attached FOIL request. We hope to have a response to you on or before January 11, 2015
Thank you.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I'm following up on the following Freedom of Information Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 30, 2015. You had previously indicated that it would be completed on Jan. 11, 2015. I wanted to check on the status of my request, and to see if there was a new estimated completion date.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: esd.sm.foil
Dear Mr. Trotter,
We apologize for the error in the date of our response to your FOIL request as indicated in our e-mail below. The correct date is January 11, 2016.
Thank you.
From: esd.sm.foil
Dear Mr. Trotter ,
We hope to have a response to you on or before January 11, 2016.
Thank you.
From: esd.sm.foil
Dear Mr. Trotter,
Please be advised that we are still processing the attached FOIL request. We hope to have a response to you on or before February 9, 2016.
Thank you.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I'm following up on the following Freedom of Information Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 30, 2015. You previously indicated that it would be completed on Feb. 9, 2016. I wanted to let you know that I am still interested in the following documents, and to see if that date was still accurate.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I'm following up on the following Freedom of Information Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 30, 2015. You had previously indicated that it would be completed on Feb. 9, 2016. I wanted to check on the status of my request, and to see if there was a new estimated completion date.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: esd.sm.foil
Dear Mr. Trotter,
I write in response to your March 30, 2015 FOIL request for:
All correspondence, dated between December 1 2014 and March 24 2015, between employees of the Empire State Development agency and employees or representatives of BuzzFeed, including and especially any legal counsel retained by BuzzFeed. Please limit this request to correspondence concerning the public disclosure, under the Freedom of Information Law or other provisions, of BuzzFeed’s application to the Excelsior Jobs Program.
Empire State Development released a copy of the application in March 2015 to news outlets, but the agency redacted portions of the document, including those containing information about BuzzFeed’s employee salaries that were not redacted in a similar disclosure regarding Vice Media.
Pursuant to section 87, subsection 2, subdivision (d) of FOIL, we have redacted portions of the records that “are trade secrets or are submitted to an agency by a commercial enterprise or derived from information obtained from a commercial enterprise and which if disclosed would cause substantial injury to the competitive position of the subject enterprise.”
Pursuant to section 87, subsection 2, subdivision (g) of FOIL, we have redacted portions of the record that are “inter-agency or intra-agency materials which are not (i) statistical or factual tabulations or data; (ii) instructions to staff that affect the public; (iii) final agency policy or determination; (iv) external audits, including but not limited to audits performed by the comptroller of the federal government.”
The appeals Officer to direct an appeal of any portion of this determination is Antovk Pidedjian , Acting FOIL Appeals Officer and Senior Counsel of New York State Urban Development Corporation d/b/a Empire State Development, 633 Third Avenue, 37th Floor, New York, NY 10017.
Kindly confirm receipt of this email.
Thank you
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From: J.K. Trotter
Hi, just confirming receipt, thanks.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I'm following up on the following Freedom of Information Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 30, 2015. You had previously indicated that it would be completed on Feb. 9, 2016. I wanted to check on the status of my request, and to see if there was a new estimated completion date.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Hall, Lesley (ESD)
Dear Mr. Trotter,
Please be advised we responded to your FOIL request on February 9, 2016 with documents attached as stated in the response letter. We are again forwarding your this response. Please provide us with your telephone number so we may follow up with you regarding this issue. Also, below is the accompanying response letter.
Thank you.
Dear Mr. Trotter,
I write in response to your March 30, 2015 FOIL request for:
All correspondence, dated between December 1 2014 and March 24 2015, between employees of the Empire State Development agency and employees or representatives of BuzzFeed, including and especially any legal counsel retained by BuzzFeed. Please limit this request to correspondence concerning the public disclosure, under the Freedom of Information Law or other provisions, of BuzzFeed’s application to the Excelsior Jobs Program.
Empire State Development released a copy of the application in March 2015 to news outlets, but the agency redacted portions of the document, including those containing information about BuzzFeed’s employee salaries that were not redacted in a similar disclosure regarding Vice Media.
Pursuant to section 87, subsection 2, subdivision (d) of FOIL, we have redacted portions of the records that “are trade secrets or are submitted to an agency by a commercial enterprise or derived from information obtained from a commercial enterprise and which if disclosed would cause substantial injury to the competitive position of the subject enterprise.”
Pursuant to section 87, subsection 2, subdivision (g) of FOIL, we have redacted portions of the record that are “inter-agency or intra-agency materials which are not (i) statistical or factual tabulations or data; (ii) instructions to staff that affect the public; (iii) final agency policy or determination; (iv) external audits, including but not limited to audits performed by the comptroller of the federal government.”
The appeals Officer to direct an appeal of any portion of this determination is Antovk Pidedjian , Acting FOIL Appeals Officer and Senior Counsel of New York State Urban Development Corporation d/b/a Empire State Development, 633 Third Avenue, 37th Floor, New York, NY 10017.
Kindly confirm receipt of this email.
Thank you
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From: J.K. Trotter
Email has been received, thank you.
-MuckRock
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