Selected links to items focusing on government operations posted on the Internet during the week ending December 29, 2023

A new report offers the first baseline assessment of the systems in place using green infrastructure to manage stormwater. It’s a harbinger of how cities are learning to manage urban stormwater the way nature would. READ MORE

 

A report from the Urban Institute attempts to measure the impact of a broad array of zoning reforms on housing supply and cost. The effects are significant, but very small, researchers found. READ MORE

 

After decades of resistance, the Tennessee Legislature has voted to add toll lanes. The Transportation Modernization Act will bring “choice lanes” to the state for the first time. Dubbed by some as "Lexus lanes," they will let drivers pay to bypass traffic, but aren’t likely to reduce congestion overall. READ MORE

 

Already 3.2 Million Americans Are Climate Migrants Between 2000 and 2020, millions of Americans have moved away from high-flood-risk areas. When between 5 to 10 percent of properties in a census block are at risk of flooding, people start to move out of the area, even despite attractive amenities. READ MORE

 

Are Public Computers in Libraries Becoming Obsolete? Libraries once struggled to keep up with demand for public computers. Now branches are removing them as they move toward a future built on providing a wide array of technology to patrons. READ MORE

 

Are We Witnessing the Death of the Password? Long the front line of digital security, the humble password may be on its way out. Or maybe not. In a landscape packed with alternatives — and increasingly destructive cyberattacks — it’s complicated. READ MORE

 

Axon Aims to Reduce Police Shooting Deaths Via New Database The company, known for Tasers and body cameras, says detailed analysis of officer-involved fatal shootings could lead to better training and non-lethal technology. The database goes into minute detail about fatalities. READ MORE

 

Boston, Seattle Issue Interim Generative AI Guidance Does your local government need a stance on generative AI? Boston encourages staff’s “responsible experimentation,” Seattle’s interim policy outlines cautions, and King County begins considering what responsible generative AI use might be. READ MORE

 

California Mobile Driver’s License Availability Nears The Department of Motor Vehicles expects that its California DMV Wallet and mobile driver’s license will become available in late summer to Californians who carry smartphones. READ MORE

 

California Report Offers Potential GenAI Use Cases How might California government make use of generative artificial intelligence? Officials suggest several ways that could happen. READ MORE

 

Can Government Catch a Break? Traditionally, residents have seen government as slow-moving and hard to interact with, but that may be changing. While there’s more work to do, public-sector services are noticeably improving. READ MORE

 

Deploying Federal Broadband Funds in an Equitable Way Following the recent announcement of federal funding allocations from the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, experts are weighing in on how to make the most of the opportunity. READ MORE

 

Digital Counties 2023: Top Counties Champion Data and Inclusion The leading jurisdictions in this year's Digital Counties Survey are redefining the boundaries of tech advancements with their agile adoption of new tools, commitment to digital equity and digitization of critical processes. READ MORE

 

Disaster Zone Podcast: ‘Deploying C-UAS to Protect the Homeland’ Becoming prepared for the next threat. READ MORE

 

Disjointed data systems are failing to identify and address disparities along the pre-K-to-work continuum. Two states are leading the way in building effective systems, and a new resource can help governments use data to inform student success strategies. READ MORE

 

Do Gov Tech Suppliers Need to Provide More AI Education? For some executives and other experts, the answer is "yes," and they are showing the way. Optibus and Motorola have set their own approaches to deepening understanding of artificial intelligence, with more to come. READ MORE

 

Flagship Public Universities Likely to Cut More Humanities, Staff — Especially in Rural States ‘Are we going to revert back to “normal?” No, we will have a new normal.’ READ MORE

 

Florida Hopes to Retain Medical Students With More Funds In the last decade, the state’s retention rate of physicians post-residency has declined. The Legislature hopes that funding 700 additional slots for medical school graduates, at $100,000 each, will incentivize the doctors to stay. READ MORE

 

Generative AI Hits Education, Ushering in a Sea Change for Schools Tools like ChatGPT are being heralded as a critical underpinning of a 21st-century education or feared as the death knell of creativity. Either way, educators increasingly realize they can’t ignore AI. READ MORE

 

Government Begins to Ask: When Do We Leave Twitter? The platform has undergone several changes since Elon Musk bought it and took it private late last year — especially when it comes to credibility and verification features, critical to government communications. READ MORE

 

Government Must Use Data to Drive Decision-Making Open data portals were a good first step toward putting the massive amount of information government holds to work. But now, experts say data should drive storytelling and decision-making across the enterprise. READ MORE

 

High School Innovators Take Center Stage in MedTech Documentary From inhaler watches to redesigned crutches: How a unique summer program in Birmingham is pushing boundaries in STEM education. READ MORE

 

High-Severity Wildfires Altering New Mexico for Generations The fires burn so hot and so thoroughly that they’ve altered the nature of New Mexico's forests, burning stands of trees and creating more of a forest of shrub fields and grasslands and leading to more fuel for fires. READ MORE

 

Hospital’s Cyber Attack Shows What Disruption Looks Like

 

Houston has created a real system to address homelessness, aligning city, county and nonprofit efforts. That innovative program is now under threat, due to changes in leadership and funding. READ MORE

 

How ChatGPT Could Help First Responders During a Disaster

 

How did Portland become a showcase of urban discontent? With its residents upset by crime, homelessness and high taxes, it’s become a depressed and discouraging place. Can Portland once again be a shining exemplar of modern urbanist success? READ MORE

 

How Hot Will Texas Get in 30 Years? Try 125 Degrees “It’s gotten hotter now than it was in the past, but we’re not done with the increasing exposure to extreme heat. It’s going to continue to increase into the future.” READ MORE

 

How Much Did Extreme Weather Cost Iowa This Year? The state’s Individual Disaster Assistance Grant Program has paid $227,675 in response to storm damage. FEMA estimated the state’s spring flood damage at $6.3 million. As of Dec. 4, crop insurers had paid out more than $248 million due to drought. READ MORE

 

How Often Do Inmates Actually Return To Prison? It’s Unclear.
States define recidivism differently, which can result in misleading interpretations of the statistics. READ MORE

 

How Should Government Regulate AI? We Asked a Robot  Artificial intelligence's potential in the public sector has grown exponentially, as have questions around appropriate guardrails. We interviewed the ChatGPT chatbot from OpenAI to see what it had to say. READ MORE

It's imperative for governments at all levels to up their game in the competition for good workers. Public servants have played a critical role in making America one of history’s great civilizations. But the work of America is not finished. To fully achieve its potential, our nation must have a strong and high-performing public sector. The stakes are far too high to settle for any other outcome. READ MORE

 

Lake Michigan’s Largest Island Explores Community Solar Beaver Island’s roughly 600 permanent residents are hoping to improve energy efficiencies of homes and buildings and figure out how to generate their own solar energy. Currently the island relies on mainland power and an oil-powered backup generator. READ MORE

 

Local government officials are sometimes overwhelmed by new and improved digital tools. But they need to be open to technology that can help residents and public employees deliver critical services. READ MORE

 

Major Progress on Cedar Rapids’ Intricate Flood Control System Millennial and Gen Z Americans will be the majority of the electorate in 2028. But predicting which party will benefit will be challenging. These young voters care more about policy than party, according to experts. READ MORE

 

New Jersey planned an ambitious offshore wind program as part of its effort to decarbonize its power grid. Some coastal residents didn’t want to see it. READ MORE

 

New Tool Designed to Blind Armed Shooters, Buy Time for Victims New York City’s Hudson Yards, the largest private real estate development in the country, is home to what has been dubbed a gigantic public art failure. Designed to be the crown jewel of the Hudson Yards development, a 150-foot-tall collection of 154 interconnected staircases known as the Vessel remains off limits. READ MORE

 

Oregon Road-Use Fee Program Ramps Up for Wider Deployment OReGO, Oregon’s road-usage charging program, is continuing to evolve with new technology partners that can deliver on a range of fronts like connected vehicle technologies and intelligent transportation systems. READ MORE

 

Philadelphia’s 90-year-old train station at 30th Street will anchor a $10 billion investment in urban development that could result in as much as 18 million square feet of new commercial and residential space over the next several decades. READ MORE

 

PNW Tribal Nation Goes Digital to Preserve Culture, Heritage For the Samish Indian Nation, the process of digitizing documents has helped to increase the resilience of some of the nation’s important records, helping preserve both language and culture. READ MORE

 

Proposed Maine Legislation Could Change State Gun Laws

 

Report Recommends Overhaul of Virginia’s Psych Hospital System The nine hospitals in the system increasingly find themselves short on beds and staff, with seven of the hospitals routinely exceeding 95 percent bed capacity. At least 20 percent of staff in the system did not believe their facility was a safe space for patients. READ MORE

 

Rural Health Care Providers Hit Hard by Doctor Drain Idaho ranked last in the country for physicians per capita before the pandemic and the doctor shortages and an aging workforce have only worsened the situation. READ MORE

 

Since the earliest days of the Internet, much of the world’s data flows through northern Virginia. But power limitations and environmental concerns could slow down the region's relentless pace of data center activity. READ MORE

 

Small Oregon Town Struggles With Urban Scale, Homelessness Tourist-dependent Clatsop County, population 41,000, has the highest rate of homelessness in Oregon. A project to convert a hotel into housing units for healthcare workers and the unhoused is a step in the right direction, leaders say. READ MORE

 

State Funding, Change Proposals Could Predict Upcoming Tech Spend Approved technology funding in the state’s enacted 2023-2024 fiscal year budget may offer a preview of what we’ll see in January, when Gov. Gavin Newsom releases his proposed FY 2024-25 state budget. READ MORE

 

States Will Need Millions to Protect Affected Wetlands After the U.S. Supreme Court stripped federal oversight of millions of acres of wetlands, the financial maintenance of those lands now falls to the states. It could take years for them to address the loss of federal standards, if they do it at all. READ MORE

 

Telehealth Revolutionizes Childhood Mental Health Care in Texas, N.Y. Health officials are focusing on how telehealth technology is transforming childhood mental health treatment, while also bridging the gap between mental health care, underserved populations and addiction treatment. READ MORE

 

Texas Training Prepares Police to Respond to Cyber Crime Residents and businesses often call 911 to report cyber crimes, yet officers in smaller jurisdictions aren’t always prepared to identify cyber incidents, collect digital evidence or identify the relevant laws involved. READ MORE

 

The Gen Z workforce makes up the smallest percentage of workers in state and local government. Despite being sought after, efforts to hire and retain them aren’t increasing those numbers. It’s time local governments learn how to recruit and retain the youngest generation of workers. READ MORE

 

The office recession is real, with downtowns in major cities still missing a majority of their pre-pandemic workforce. San Francisco offers a case study in terms of the consequences. READ MORE

 

The Wind Is in Hydrogen’s Sails; Politics Could Change That Major pieces of domestic policy like the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act are advancing hydrogen energy technology. A change to who occupies the White House could alter this course. READ MORE

 

The Year's Biggest Stories: Navigating Transportation Shifts, Cybersecurity Evolution and Digital Equity A recap of 2023's pivotal trends in gov tech: transportation transitions, cybersecurity challenges and strides in digital inclusivity. READ MORE

 

Thomson Reuters Takes on Houston's Anti-Human Trafficking Digital Toolkits The partnership with Houston enables continuation of large-scale work to disrupt human trafficking. READ MORE

 

To Buy AI, Government Needs to See Big Changes — Fast At a recent event bringing together public- and private-sector leaders in government technology, many spoke about how hiring struggles are making AI both more appealing and more difficult to adopt. READ MORE

 

Untapped Potential: States Turn to Non-Traditional Tech Hires Some states like Texas, Indiana and Colorado are filling their open positions with innovative programs that point people eager to learn in the direction of government IT. READ MORE

 

What Emergency Managers Learned from Deadly Hurricane Ian

 

What Kind of Open Records Data Do People Actually Want? Thousands of files have been uploaded to public data portals by local and state government agencies. Access data from San Francisco may hint at what the public actually wants to see. READ MORE

 

When You Change Social Platforms, Who Controls Your Data? Social media has a portability problem: When users leave one platform for another, none of their followers go with them. That's no small issue for governments that rely on networks to disseminate important information. READ MORE

 

Why Are Health Costs Soaring in Washington State? Health insurance premiums in the state have risen 49 percent in the last decade, which may be a result of industry business mergers. More than 80 percent of residents are worried about affording health care in the future. READ MORE

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Claimants for unemployment insurance benefits found ineligible to receive such benefits because they were not totally unemployed.

Plaintiffs in this action* are, or were, civil service employees who worked full time as instructors or teachers of incarcerated individuals, or educational supervisors, at facilities operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

After Plaintiffs were advised that there would be no additional work available for the summer of 2020, Plaintiffs filed for and received unemployment insurance benefits including regular unemployment insurance benefits, federal pandemic unemployment compensation and pandemic unemployment assistance under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act of 2020 (the CARES Act) (see 15 USC §§ 9021, 9023, 9025) and Lost Wage Assistance benefits (see 44 CFR 206.120).

The New York State Department of Labor subsequently determined that Plaintiffs were paid an annual salary and were consequently ineligible to receive regular or federal benefits in that they were not totally unemployed effective as of specified dates in June 2020, and charged them with certain overpayments. Plaintiffs challenged the Department's determinations.

In this appeal the Appellate Division sustained the determination of the New York State Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board that:

1. "Under state law, regular unemployment insurance benefits require total unemployment (see Labor Law §591[1]; Matter of Kelly [Commissioner of Labor], 215 AD3d 1157, 1158 [3d Dept 2023]), which is defined as "the total lack of any employment on any day" (Labor Law §522 [emphasis added]). "Whether a claimant is totally unemployed and thereby entitled to receive unemployment insurance benefits is a factual issue for the Board to decide and its decision will be upheld if supported by substantial evidence" (Matter of Chin [Commissioner of Labor], 211 AD3d 1263, 1264 [3d Dept 2022] [internal quotation marks and citations omitted]; see Matter of Cruz [Commissioner of Labor], 215 AD3d 1203, 1204 [3d Dept 2023]). In finding that claimants were not totally unemployed during the summer 2020 recess, the Board properly relied upon Civil Service Law §136, which applies to teachers and instructors at state institutions, including those operated by DOCCS, and provides that the "annual salary" for those employees may be paid over 10 months or 12 months (Civil Service Law §136[2]; see Civil Service Law §136[1]; Matter of Darwin [Catherwood], 30 AD2d 996, 996 [3d Dept 1968]). If they are required to work outside of the academic year, they must receive "additional compensation" beyond their annual salary, which, by definition, compensates them for the entire 12-month year including the summer recess (Civil Service Law §136[2]); and 

2. "Contrary to claimants' arguments, the Board correctly concluded that their entitlement to PUA benefits is governed by state unemployment insurance law, including the requirement of total unemployment. This conclusion "is consistent with the guidance provided by the US Department of Labor, the federal agency tasked with providing operating instructions for the joint state-federal pandemic unemployment insurance program," of which this Court has taken judicial notice (Matter of Mikheil [Commissioner of Labor], 206 AD3d 1422, 1425 [3d Dept 2022]). That guidance provides that "the terms and conditions of the state law of the applicable state for an individual which apply to claims for, and the payment of, regular compensation apply to the payment of PUA to individuals" (US Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Unemployment Insurance Program Letter No. 16-20, at I-9."

* Matter of Almindo (New York State Department of Corr. and Community Supervision - Commissioner of Labor)

The full  text of the Appellate Division's decision in Matter of Almindo is set out below. 

 

Matter of Almindo (New York State Dept. of Corr. & Community Supervision--Commissioner of Labor)

2023 NY Slip Op 06424

Decided on December 14, 2023

Appellate Division, Third Department

Egan Jr., J.P.

Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.

This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports.

 

Claimants were civil service employees who worked full time as instructors or teachers for incarcerated individuals, or educational supervisors, at facilities operated by the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (hereinafter DOCCS). Claimants were paid an annual salary to teach or supervise teaching during the academic year, which ran from approximately September 1 through June 30 according to the schedule set by each facility. Their employment was governed by a collective bargaining agreement (hereinafter CBA) entered into between the state and claimants' union, the Public Employees Federation, AFL-CIO (hereinafter PEF). The CBA provided that claimants had the option of receiving their annual salary biweekly either over the academic year or over the calendar year; all of the claimants except Michael Heintz opted to receive their salary over the 12-month calendar year. Prior to 2020, claimants were offered work over the summer, if it was available, for which they were paid additional hourly compensation. Claimants worked through the June 2020 academic year, remained on the payroll over the summer and returned to work in September 2020, although they did not perform additional work over that summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

After they were advised that there would be no additional work available for the summer of 2020, claimants filed for and received unemployment insurance benefits including regular unemployment insurance benefits, federal pandemic unemployment compensation (hereinafter FPUC) and pandemic unemployment assistance (hereinafter PUA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act of 2020 (the CARES Act) (see 15 USC §§ 9021, 9023, 9025) and Lost Wage Assistance benefits (hereinafter LWA) (see 44 CFR 206.120). The Department of Labor determined that claimants were paid an annual salary and were consequently ineligible to receive regular or federal benefits in that they were not totally unemployed effective as of specified dates in June 2020, and charged them with certain overpayments.

At the hearing requested by claimants, testimony was taken and DOCCS, the Commissioner of Labor and PEF, on behalf of claimants, reached a stipulation and agreement that the decision for the five named claimants would bind the Department, DOCCS and 172 other PEF members listed in the agreement (see 12 NYCRR 461.4 [g]). The stipulation governed the issues of whether claimants were totally unemployed, eligible for regular unemployment insurance benefits or eligible for PUA, FPUC or LWA benefits. In essentially identical determinations, the Administrative Law Judge (hereinafter ALJ) sustained the initial determinations and found that, pursuant to Civil Service Law §136, claimants were not totally unemployed during the summer of 2020 in that they were employed on an annual basis and paid an annual salary, regardless of how they opted to be paid (on a calendar or academic year); thus, they were not entitled to regular, PUA, FPUC or LWA unemployment benefits. The ALJ also upheld the determination that the overpayments of FPUC and LWA benefits are recoverable.

On claimants' appeal, the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board issued five substantially identical decisions adopting the ALJ's finding and opinions. The Board further found that claimants must be totally unemployed within the meaning of the state Labor Law to be eligible for PUA benefits. Claimants appeal.

We affirm. Under state law, regular unemployment insurance benefits require total unemployment (see Labor Law § 591 [1]; Matter of Kelly [Commissioner of Labor], 215 AD3d 1157, 1158 [3d Dept 2023]), which is defined as "the total lack of any employment on any day" (Labor Law § 522 [emphasis added]). "Whether a claimant is totally unemployed and thereby entitled to receive unemployment insurance benefits is a factual issue for the Board to decide and its decision will be upheld if supported by substantial evidence" (Matter of Chin [Commissioner of Labor], 211 AD3d 1263, 1264 [3d Dept 2022] [internal quotation marks and citations omitted]; see Matter of Cruz [Commissioner of Labor], 215 AD3d 1203, 1204 [3d Dept 2023]). In finding that claimants were not totally unemployed during the summer 2020 recess, the Board properly relied upon Civil Service Law § 136, which applies to teachers and instructors at state institutions, including those operated by DOCCS, and provides that the "annual salary" for those employees may be paid over 10 months or 12 months (Civil Service Law § 136 [2]; see Civil Service Law § 136 [1]; Matter of Darwin [Catherwood], 30 AD2d 996, 996 [3d Dept 1968]).^[FN1] If they are required to work outside of the academic year, they must receive "additional compensation" beyond their annual salary, which, by definition, compensates them for the entire 12-month year including the summer recess (Civil Service Law § 136 [2]).

The fact that optional, additional work was not available over the summer of 2020, as it had been in prior years, does not change the analysis or conclusion that claimants remained employed over the summer recess, i.e., they were not totally unemployed (see Matter of McNamara [Commissioner of Labor], 215 AD3d 1215, 1216 [3d Dept 2023]). To that end, "unemployment insurance benefits are [not] intended . . . to supplement a full annual salary" (Matter of Summers [New York City Bd. of Educ.-Commissioner of Labor], 21 AD3d 669, 671 [3d Dept 2005]). The Board properly rejected claimants' contention that they were employed and compensated for only 10 months each year and unemployed during the summer. As it was undisputed that claimants, although only required to work during the academic year, were paid their full annual salary, substantial evidence supports the Board's finding that they were not totally unemployed during the summer recess of 2020 and, thus, were ineligible to receive regular unemployment benefits for that period (see Matter of Darwin [Catherwood], 30 AD2d at 996; see also Matter of Chin [Commissioner of Labor], 211 AD3d at 1264; Matter of Gronowicz [Commissioner of Labor], 59 AD3d 824, 824 [3d Dept 2009]; Matter of Summers [New York City Bd. of Educ.-Commissioner of Labor], 21 AD3d at 671; Matter of Wolfson [Ross], 57 AD2d 10, 11 [3d Dept 1977]).

"Given the Board's finding that claimant[s were] not totally unemployed and therefore ineligible for unemployment insurance benefits under state law, claimant[s were] also not eligible to receive federal pandemic assistance under the CARES Act" (Matter of McNamara [Commissioner of Labor], 215 AD3d at 1216 [citations omitted]). Claimants were further properly charged with recoverable overpayments, including for the PUA ^[FN2] (see 15 USC § 9021 [h]; 20 CFR 625.14), FPUC (see 15 USC § 9023 [b] [1]; [f] [2]) and LWA (see 44 CFR 206.120 [f] [5]; see also 15 USC § 9025 [e] [2]; Matter of Spring [Syracuse City Sch. Dist.-Commissioner of Labor], 215 AD3d 1211, 1212 [3d Dept 2023]; Matter of Cruz [Commissioner of Labor], 215 AD3d at 1204; Matter of Chin [Commissioner of Labor], 211 AD3d at 1264).

Contrary to claimants' arguments, the Board correctly concluded that their entitlement to PUA benefits is governed by state unemployment insurance law, including the requirement of total unemployment. This conclusion "is consistent with the guidance provided by the US Department of Labor, the federal agency tasked with providing operating instructions for the joint state-federal pandemic unemployment insurance program," of which this Court has taken judicial notice (Matter of Mikheil [Commissioner of Labor], 206 AD3d 1422, 1425 [3d Dept 2022]). That guidance provides that "the terms and conditions of the state law of the applicable state for an individual which apply to claims for, and the payment of, regular compensation apply to the payment of PUA to individuals" (US Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Unemployment Insurance Program Letter No. 16-20, at I-9 [attachment 1], available at https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/advisories/unemployment-insurance-program-letter-no-16-20; see US Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Unemployment Insurance Program Letter No. 09-21, complete document at 3-4 ["The programs and provisions within . . . the CARES Act operate in tandem with the fundamental eligibility requirements of the Federal-State (unemployment insurance) program" and "(s)tates must ensure that individuals only receive benefits in accordance with federal and state law"], available at https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/advisories/unemployment-insurance-program-letter-no-09-21). We have considered claimants' remaining contentions and find that they do not support a contrary result.

Pritzker, Fisher, McShan and Powers, JJ., concur.

ORDERED that the decisions are affirmed, without costs.

Footnotes

Footnote 1: We agree with the Board's conclusion that Labor Law § 590 (10) and (11), and the decisions and guidance provided thereunder, are inapplicable in that they govern employment with educational institutions and not state institutions or facilities run by DOCCS. The CBA governing claimants reflects that they are teachers in state institutions. This Court has "accepted the Department of Labor's definition of an educational institution, as an organization established for the purpose of operating a school, schools, or alternative educational experience offering a program of instruction in academic, technical or vocational subjects, which is certified by, under contract to or subject to the regulations of the Commissioner of Education" (Matter of Fernandez [Suffolk County Org. for Promotion of Educ.-Commissioner of Labor], 50 AD3d 1399, 1400 [3d Dept 2008] [internal quotation marks and citations omitted; emphasis added], lv denied 11 NY3d 705 [2008]). While DOCCS offers an array of educational and instructional opportunities for incarcerated individuals, it was not established for educational or instructional purposes but, rather, was established "to ensure the appropriate care, custody, treatment, and supervision of offenders, whether in a correctional facility or in the community" (Mark Bonacquist, Practice Commentaries, McKinney's Cons Laws of NY, Book 10B, Correction Law § 5 at 29; see Correction Law §§ 2 [4]; 112, 136).

Footnote 2: As claimants lacked total unemployment, they did not demonstrate entitlement to PUA benefits or that they were unable to work — indeed, they continued to receive their annual salary during the summer recess although they did not have an offer to work in the summer — due to one of the qualifying statutory conditions (see 15 USC § 9021 [a] [3] [A] [ii] [I]). 

Click HERE to access the Appellate Division's ruling posted on the Internet.