When it comes to open government, talk is cheap. It takes more than just words to truly practice open government.
Now, let’s talk about you, Gov. Kathy Hochul, and the state’s Department of Transportation.
For years, New York has been plagued by an obsession with managing news and controlling the flow of information. This fixation transcends party lines, from Democrat Mario Cuomo to Republican George Pataki to Democrat Andrew Cuomo.
When Ms. Hochul took over from Andrew Cuomo amidst numerous scandals in 2021, she promised to be a beacon of transparency. That’s why it’s particularly disappointing to read the recent audit released by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, which criticizes the DOT for not fully adhering to New York’s Freedom of Information Law.
And it gets worse. The audit also accuses the DOT of obstructing the audit itself. This level of opacity is a whole new level of government frustration towards its own watchdog.
Of course, this isn’t anything new. Mr. Cuomo and his cronies were infamous for interfering with ethics entities, such as the governor’s tight control over the former Joint Commission on Public Ethics and the shutdown of his own Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption when it started investigating his associates.
One particularly elaborate control tactic employed by Mr. Cuomo was his “ethics, risk, and compliance initiative.” This initiative saw loyal attorneys embedded in around two dozen state agencies under the false pretense of ensuring ethical behavior. In reality, they were there to protect Mr. Cuomo by suppressing potentially embarrassing information and delaying Freedom of Information Law requests for months or even years.
The echoes of Mr. Cuomo’s practices can be heard in Mr. DiNapoli’s audit of the DOT. The audit reveals that the agency insisted on having its attorneys present during interviews with the comptroller’s auditors and intentionally withheld requested information.
According to Larry Rulison of the Times Union, the audit also discovered numerous instances where the DOT failed to comply with FOIL rules for disclosing public information or responding to FOIL requests in a timely manner. Out of the 15,738 FOIL requests examined, the auditors estimated that the DOT violated the law or its own procedures 1,965 times during the specified period.
The DOT could have argued that the audit period, which spanned from January 2018 to September 2021, mostly fell under the Cuomo administration and that they have been working towards greater transparency and compliance with the law. Instead, they defended their delays in responding to FOIL requests, claiming it was within their legal rights, justified having attorneys monitor audit interviews to protect attorney-client privilege, and even questioned the comptroller’s authority to audit their FOIL practices.
It’s clear that the agency is doing whatever it takes to cover its backside.
If Gov. Hochul truly wants to restore public trust in government, she must change the culture within an agency that believes it’s acceptable to bend the rules as long as they can find a legal loophole, even if it’s only 12 percent of the time.
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