Opportunity Zone records

Dear Mr. Galbraith:

ESD is in receipt of the attached FOIL requests 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 Mr. Galbraith,

I write in response to your December 13, 2018 FOIL request for:

"1. Written or electronic communications to and from Empire State Development from January 1, 2017 through today (December 13, 2018) relating or referring to the Opportunity Zone program created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017

2. Written or electronic communications or other records from January 1, 2017 through today (December 13, 2018) relating or referring to the recommendation of census tracts for designation as Opportunity Zones."
The Freedom of Information Law ("FOIL") and the Committee on Open Government ("COOG") 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 (see http://docs.dos.ny.gov/coog/ftext/2013/18949.html) the COOG 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." It is further noted, "that it is unreasonable to require an agency to review thousands of records that may contain a particular search term or terms in response to a Freedom of Information Law request. As is the case here, it would be an unreasonable burden, in our view, 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." Id.

Please note that in the August 12, 2012 Advisory Opinion, the request at issue related to "any and all email communications" between two individuals. By comparison, your request seeks communications "to and from Empire State Development...relating or referring to the Opportunity Zone program" and you have provided insufficient detail to allow us to search a narrower subset than the entire population of records of all 503 ESD employees.
Due to the sheer breadth of the search population, 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.

The appeals officer to direct an appeal of any portion of this determination is Julene Beckford, Associate Counsel of 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.