NYS COVID-19 pandemic small business recovery grant program applicant and grant data
| Submitted | Jan. 28, 2022 |
| Est. Completion | March 7, 2022 |
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Communications
From: Alan E Bernstein
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the New York Freedom of Information Law, I hereby request the following records:
1. The most current list of all applicants for the NYS Small Business Recovery Grant authorized under section 16-FF of the Urban Development corporation law.
2. For each applicant, Please provide Name, Address, Date of application, estimated grant request amount, Business size, 2019 revenue, 2020 revenue, 2019 profit or loss, reason for rejection if applicable, or approved amount if approves, and any other available data that might be available pertaining to the applicants
3. For each application provide the current Status and date updated. Please provide the dates and type of all (major) status changes i.e., Application received, pending documentation, documentation received, application approved, application rejected, application funded. This data can be integrated with the data from #2 or provided separately. If separate each list or table shall have a unique identifier for each business, so that the list or tables can be correlated.
I own a business that submitted an application, but the data is being requested explicitly to assure transpency and that these NYS expenditures were made in manner that adheres to the legislation and to promote public confidence of the same.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, 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,
Alan E Bernstein
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following New York Freedom of Information Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 28, 2022. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Empire State Development
Dear Alan Bernstein:
ESD is in receipt of your 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 status of its review and endeavor to provide you with any responsive documents and/or determination(s) made pursuant to FOIL in 20 business days.
Please be advised that as part of the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic, some or all agency employees may be working off-site. As such, there may be delays in response to FOIL requests. If a record responsive to a request is only available in hard-copy format, that record's availability will be limited until further notice.
Thank you for your patience during this extraordinary time.
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.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following New York Freedom of Information Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on Jan. 28, 2022. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Empire State Development
Please see email HIGHLIGHTED below.
Thank you.
Records Access Office
FOIL@esd.ny.gov<mailto:FOIL@esd.ny.gov>
From: Empire State Development
Dear Alan Bernstein:
Please be advised that ESD continues to review documents related to the attached FOIL requests in accordance with the Freedom of Information Law (Public Officers Law, Section 84 et seq.) ("FOIL") and its rules concerning access to ESD's records. ESD will notify you of the status of its review and endeavor to provide you with any responsive documents and/or determination(s) made pursuant to FOIL on or before April 18, 2022.
Thank you.
Records Access Officer
FOIL@esd.ny.gov<mailto:FOIL@esd.ny.gov>
From: Alan E Bernstein
Please explain the delay. It is inconceivable that all or at least most of this data is not aleady available to ESD and cannot be easily produced by the program vendor. The data is important to the people of NY to be able to determine whether the funds were distributed fairly, equitably, devoid of fraudin a manner consistent with the intent of the legislature. Parallel circumstances existed in the Federal PPP program and recently the District Court for the District of Columbia denied the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) motion to stay the release of extremely similar information in "WP COMPANY LLC et al v. U.S. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION"
The court ruled that "Disclosure of the complete list of borrowers and precise loan amounts would facilitate “meaningful evaluation” of the government’s activities — specifically, whether the programs “are being operated consistent with applicable legal constraints; whether funds have been distributed fairly, equitably, and devoid of fraud; and whether the programs are achieving their purpose.”
From: Empire State Development
Dear Alan Bernstein:
Please be advised that ESD continues to review documents related to the attached FOIL requests in accordance with the Freedom of Information Law (Public Officers Law, Section 84 et seq.) ("FOIL") and its rules concerning access to ESD's records. ESD will notify you of the status of its review and endeavor to provide you with any responsive documents and/or determination(s) made pursuant to FOIL on or before May 16, 2022.
Thank you.
Records Access Officer
FOIL@esd.ny.gov<mailto:FOIL@esd.ny.gov>
From: Empire State Development
Dear Alan Bernstein:
Please be advised that ESD continues to review documents related to the attached FOIL requests in accordance with the Freedom of Information Law (Public Officers Law, Section 84 et seq.) ("FOIL") and its rules concerning access to ESD's records. ESD will notify you of the status of its review and endeavor to provide you with any responsive documents and/or determination(s) made pursuant to FOIL on or before June 14, 2022.
Thank you.
Records Access Officer
FOIL@esd.ny.gov<mailto:FOIL@esd.ny.gov>
From: Empire State Development
Dear Alan Bernstein:
Please be advised that ESD continues to review documents related to the attached FOIL requests in accordance with the Freedom of Information Law (Public Officers Law, Section 84 et seq.) ("FOIL") and its rules concerning access to ESD's records. ESD will notify you of the status of its review and endeavor to provide you with any responsive documents and/or determination(s) made pursuant to FOIL on or before July 14, 2022.
Thank you.
Records Access Officer
FOIL@esd.ny.gov<mailto:FOIL@esd.ny.gov>
From: Empire State Development
Dear Alan Bernstein:
Please be advised that ESD continues to review documents related to the attached FOIL requests in accordance with the Freedom of Information Law (Public Officers Law, Section 84 et seq.) ("FOIL") and its rules concerning access to ESD's records. ESD will notify you of the status of its review and endeavor to provide you with any responsive documents and/or determination(s) made pursuant to FOIL on or before August 11, 2022.
Thank you.
Records Access Officer
FOIL@esd.ny.gov<mailto:FOIL@esd.ny.gov>
From: Alan E Bernstein
This request was orginally filed on Jan 28th of this year. Subsequentlyt I have been promised a response in May, Jun , Jul and this upcoming Aug. 11th. By law, "if circumstances prevent disclosure to the person requesting the record
or records within twenty business days from the date of the acknowledgement of the receipt of the request, the
agency shall state, in writing, both the reason for the inability to grant the request within twenty business days and
a date certain within a reasonable period, depending on the circumstances, when the request will be granted in
whole or in part." Please note the words DATE CERTAIN. As such, the agency is clearly in violation of the statute, so please respond to the request immediately or alternatively provide "the reason for the inability to grant the request within twenty business days and a date certain within a reasonable period, depending on the circumstances, when the request will be granted in whole or in part."
Thanks
From: Empire State Development
Dear Alan Bernstein:
This email responds to your January 28, 2022 request for the following:
1. The most current list of all applicants for the NYS Small Business Recovery Grant authorized under section 16-FF of the Urban Development corporation law.
2. For each applicant, Please provide Name, Address, Date of application, estimated grant request amount, Business size, 2019 revenue, 2020 revenue, 2019 profit or loss, reason for rejection if applicable, or approved amount if approves, and any other available data that might be available pertaining to the applicants
3. For each application provide the current Status and date updated. Please provide the dates and type of all (major) status changes i.e., Application received, pending documentation, documentation received, application approved, application rejected, application funded. This data can be integrated with the data from #2 or provided separately. If separate each list or table shall have a unique identifier for each business, so that the list or tables can be correlated.
Please be advised that ESD's third party administrator has processed over 143,000 applications for the Small Business Recovery Grant Program as referenced in the June Small Business Recovery Grant Program Report https://esd.ny.gov/sites/default/files/Small-Business-Report-JUNE-30-2022.pdf<https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fesd.ny.gov%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2FSmall-Business-Report-JUNE-30-2022.pdf&data=05%7C01%7CJaclyn.Clemmer%40esd.ny.gov%7Ce5c6267f65194be10fa508da7bb64395%7Cf46cb8ea79004d108ceb80e8c1c81ee7%7C0%7C0%7C637958319992252365%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=JvztpDEAFpbei1dHNELjQ7W4SvKScfUQqvgyTtxILXw%3D&reserved=0>. ESD inquired of our third-party administrator about the cost and feasibility of producing available program data in an attempt to fulfill your request and was quoted approximately $25,000 in costs.
Please note that when the program closes (which should be in the next few months), ESD will provide information regarding each grant recipient of the program to the public by posting it on the Database of Economic Incentives.
Please respond if you would like ESD to keep your request open and notify you with the link to the publicly posted information when it is available.
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
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.
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