NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A843A
SPONSOR: Paulin TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the executive law, in relation to information on state
boards
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
Requires the commissioner of the office of general services to compile,
make public, and keep current information about state boards.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section one amends the executive law by adding a new section 203-B which
defines "board" and "commissioner" and requires the commissioner to
maintain a compilation of the membership, duties, meeting and contact
information, and products of all state boards. The commissioner must
keep such inventory in a public record available on a website designated
by the commissioner.
This section also provides that all boards, or the state agencies they
advise, shall annually submit to the commissioner all information needed
to facilitate these publication requirements, and that the commissioner
of State must update the list annually.
This section provides that all boards, or the state agencies they
advise, must also provide to the commissioner on an annual basis all
costs associated with these boards for the prior year, and anticipated
costs for the coming year. The public can then access this information
upon request of the commissioner.
Finally, the commissioner is directed to report to the governor, speaker
of the assembly, temporary president of the senate, chair of the assem-
bly oversight, investigations and analysis committee, and chair of the
senate investigations and government operations committee on the status
of the inventory on or before January 1, 2024.
Section two provides the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
No complete public inventory of state commissions, boards, councils,
task forces, or similar bodies exists in New York. As a result, it is
difficult, if not impossible, for New Yorkers to have an understanding
of existing boards, their composition, purpose or legal responsibil-
ities. The Committee on Oversight, Analysis & Investigation recently
completed a review of more than one hundred statutorily authorized
boards, task forces, and commissions. The review found that only about
half have information online, only thirty percent listed public meet-
ings, and only forty-five percent had contact information was readily
available.
Forty-three states have some form of centralized compilation or list of
state boards. This legislation would bring New York in line with the
majority of states which already provide this information to their citi-
zens and enable New Yorkers to easily find information about boards.
Overall, this is an important step in improving accountability and
increasing government transparency. This information is critically
important to enable oversight authorities to make recommendations on
merging boards with duplicative duties and purposes or eliminate
nonfunctioning boards. Since being vetoed in 2010, executive action
through the SAGE Commission has helped address some of the issues but
failed to reach the level of transparency that a list of all commissions
would provide. Any costs for creating transparency are far outweighed by
the potential cost saving of consolidation and the positive societal
benefits of transparency.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
A.9630 of 2020, referred to governmental operations;
A.473/S.2975 of 2019, Veto No.160.
A.2568 of 2017 and 2018, referred to governmental operations.
A.9458 of 2C16, referred to governmental operations.
A.1163/ S.1622 of 2015, Veto No. 223
A.489A of 2013 and 2014, referred to governmental operations. Same as
S.2526-A passed in the Senate in 2013 and 2014.
A.73A of 2011/2012, referred to governmental operations. Same as
S.2405-B of 2011/2012 referred to finance in 2011 and passed in the
Senate in 2012
A.10052A of 2010 passed both houses.
S.2526 of 2013 and 2014, passed senate both years.
S.24058, of 2012 passed senate.
S.7369 of 2010 passed both houses.
In 2010 the bill was vetoed, Veto No. 6807 of 2010.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Minimal.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect April 1, 2023.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
843--A
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 6, 2021
___________
Introduced by M. of A. PAULIN, MAGNARELLI, LUPARDO, GALEF -- Multi-Spon-
sored by -- M. of A. COOK, GLICK, GUNTHER, PERRY, THIELE -- read once
and referred to the Committee on Governmental Operations -- recommit-
ted to the Committee on Governmental Operations in accordance with
Assembly Rule 3, sec. 2 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered
reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to information on state
boards
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The executive law is amended by adding a new section 203-b
2 to read as follows:
3 § 203-b. Additional duties of the commissioner regarding information
4 on state boards. 1. As used in this section, "commissioner" means the
5 commissioner of the office of general services and, "board" means any
6 board, commission, committee, council, task force or any similar state
7 public organization, required to be established pursuant to the state
8 constitution, state statutes or executive order, for the exercise of any
9 function of state government and to which members are appointed or
10 elected. "Board" does not include:
11 a. any informal advisory organization established exclusively by a
12 state agency to advise the commissioner, secretary, or director of that
13 agency on an informal basis;
14 b. any joint standing committee of the legislature or any committee of
15 the assembly and/or senate composed entirely of members of the legisla-
16 ture;
17 c. any court;
18 d. the board of trustees of any institution of higher education finan-
19 cially supported in whole or in part by the state;
20 e. any entity of local government;
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02098-05-2
A. 843--A 2
1 f. any public authority or public benefit corporation, a majority of
2 whose members are appointed by the governor or serve as members by
3 virtue of holding state offices to which they were appointed by the
4 governor, or any combination thereof; and
5 g. any board of elections.
6 2. The commissioner shall maintain a compilation of the membership and
7 meeting information of all state boards, including state boards deemed
8 active and regularly meeting on and after the effective date of this
9 section. The commissioner shall keep such inventory in a public record
10 available for inspection, and updated annually on a website designated
11 by the commissioner for the purpose of public access. Such compilation
12 shall include, but not be limited to:
13 a. statutory language, executive order or other legal basis or author-
14 ization for the establishment of such board;
15 b. public information including departmental affiliation, contact
16 address, phone number, and website;
17 c. a brief description of the purpose of the board and its legally
18 required duties, including required reports or other products;
19 d. the size of board membership, current member names, and any quali-
20 fications;
21 e. whether members of a board are eligible for payment of expenses or
22 other compensation in the performance of their duties as members of that
23 board;
24 f. dates and locations of all meetings held, and to be held within six
25 months, or a location, including but not limited to another website, in
26 which such information can be publicly accessed;
27 g. geographic and other relevant qualifications of all current members
28 of the board, including the county in which the member resides and the
29 background or expertise the member possesses where such background or
30 expertise is required for membership on such board; and
31 h. any other information the commissioner may require. Nothing in
32 this section shall authorize the release or publication of any board
33 member's residential address.
34 2-a. The commissioner shall also, to the extent practicable, maintain
35 and update annually a compilation of all available information of all
36 state boards currently authorized by provisions of the state constitu-
37 tion, state statutes or executive orders that the commissioner deems
38 inactive. For purposes of this section, a board shall be deemed inactive
39 if it has not held a meeting in the year prior to the effective date of
40 this section. A board shall hereafter be treated as inactive for the
41 purposes of this section if it has not met in the preceding calendar
42 year.
43 3. The commissioner shall update on an annual basis beginning April
44 first, two thousand twenty-three on the designated website, all vacan-
45 cies, expired terms, those terms expiring within one year, and the proc-
46 ess for filling such vacancies on such boards.
47 4. Each board or the state agency that provides administrative support
48 or is otherwise affiliated with a board shall annually on or before
49 January first, submit to the commissioner all information pursuant to
50 this section in a manner specified by the commissioner to facilitate the
51 publication requirements of this section. Each submission shall also
52 include information on compensation and expenses incurred in the prior
53 and current fiscal years, as well as projected costs for the coming
54 fiscal year.
55 5. The commissioner shall receive from any department, division,
56 board, bureau, commission or other agency of the state any information
A. 843--A 3
1 and resources as will enable him or her to properly carry out the
2 purposes of this section.
3 6. On or before January first, two thousand twenty-four, the commis-
4 sioner shall report to the governor, the speaker of the assembly, the
5 temporary president of the senate, the chair of the assembly oversight,
6 analysis and investigation committee and the chair of the senate inves-
7 tigations and government operations committee on the status of the
8 inventory including but not limited to the number of boards reported and
9 verified; the aggregate demographic information of appointments made by
10 each appointing authority including but not limited to race, sex, and
11 geographic representation of such appointees provided that no informa-
12 tion shall be personally identifiable, and the content and completeness
13 of the information gathered in accordance with the requirements of this
14 section. The commissioner shall also report on any impediments to
15 obtaining information.
16 § 2. This act shall take effect April 1, 2023.
