Government Technology webinar - update for the week of April 12, 2021

How Vallejo Boosted Economic Development in a Post-Pandemic Economy
Leaders from the city of Vallejo, Calif. explore the business challenges faced by the city and how a mission critical, cloud-platform solution was implemented to enable residents to do business with the city electronically, reduce call volumes and decrease processing backlogs, and boost economic development during a time of growing fiscal uncertainty. Watch Now

How King County Took a Hybrid Cloud Approach to Modernization
Most government leaders recognize the value cloud can bring to their organizations. However, they also realize that shutting down to undertake a wholesale cloud migration isn’t realistic. Instead, they must follow a hybrid approach — taking a series of incremental, bite-sized steps toward cloud migration while continuing to manage on-premises data centers, applications and other legacy systems. Watch Now

Using DevOps Metrics to Effectively Contain Costs
The current economic climate has severely impacted budgets. Reducing institutional costs and increasing efficiencies will be a top priority in 2021 and beyond. This webinar will take a deep dive into cost control strategies that can simultaneously help government organizations accelerate their digital modernization efforts. Watch Now

High-Velocity Service Management: Delivering Constituent Services Better, Faster and Cheaper
Constituents’ needs and expectations are constantly changing and evolving, which is why governments are working hard to deliver citizen services faster and more effectively than ever before. Automation helps agencies modernize constituent service management and streamline workflows. But most full-scale service desk solutions remain too costly for many governments, especially at a time of severe budget constraints. Watch Now

A MASTER CLASS: How to Create a Resilient Government of Tomorrow
The topic of resilience is especially important as governments emerge from the pandemic only to find their needs have grown while their resources have become more limited. As they move forward, how will governments lay the proper foundation for their resilience needs and design the right strategy to ensure resilience? How will they implement this strategy? These are important questions this masterclass will help answer in five modules. Start the Class Now

To view more on-demand and upcoming webinars, visit webinars.govtech.com.

For assistance with registration, contact:
Jeremy Smith, jsmith@erepublic.com (916) 932-1402 direct

 

Vaccine Passports: New York

How Excelsior Pass, the First U.S. Vaccine Passport, Works 

[Source: GOVTECH TODAY]

The idea of vaccine passports is drawing its share of controversy, but while some states are shutting the idea down, New York’s Excelsior Pass is off and running. GT’s Ben Millerbreaks down what the tool does and doesn’t do. And a contributed piece on GT this week considers whether blockchain technology has a role to play in the creation of secure vaccine passports. 

Click HERE to access the full text of the article posted by GOVTECH TODAY.

 

New York State Comptroller Releases Municipal and School District Audits

New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli released the following audits of government entities during the week ending April 11, 2021.

Click on the text in COLOR to access the audit report.

Municipal Audits

• Albany Water Board
• City of Peekskill
• Grand Gorge Fire District
• Masonville Fire District
• Middletown No. 1 Fire District
• Town of Greenwich
• Town of New Hudson
• Village of Head of the Harbor

 

School District Audits

• Briarcliff Manor Union
• Broadalbin-Perth
• Cherry Valley-Springfield
• Hamilton
• Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk

 

Judical review of rejections of Freedom of Information requests for public records

The petitioner [Plaintiff] in this first CPLR Article 78 of two Freedom of Information Law [FOIL] actions sought a court order to compel the agency to produce certain public records Plaintiff had demanded. Supreme dismissed the proceeding and Plaintiff appealed.

The Appellate Division vacated the dismissal of the action by Supreme Court in part and remanded the matter "to a different judge" for further proceedings "consistent with [the Appellant Division's] order".

Citing Matter of Lesher v Hynes, 19 NY3d 57, the court explained that the agency "failed to meet its burden of establishing that disclosure of any records responsive to [Plaintiff's] FOIL request would "interfere with law enforcement investigations or judicial proceedings," and, in any event, that the exemption no longer applies "after enforcement investigations and any ensuing judicial proceedings have run their course".

The Appellate Division also noted that it rejected the agency's "broad arguments for withholding all of the responsive records" as to honor such a contention "would amount to a blanket exemption that would seemingly apply to virtually any records of any investigation conducted by [the agency]".

In the words of the court, "blanket exemptions for particular types of documents are inimical to FOIL's policy of open government." Click HERE to access this decision by Appellate Division.

The Appellate Division, however, dismissed a second appeal of Article 78 action involving anther FOIL application brought by the same Plaintiff seeking certain other public records.

In this second case Plaintiff sought a court order to compel the agency to disclose records for "all requests for religious accommodations (such as, dress, shifts etc.) by employees and the result thereof ... includ[ing] ... the job title and date," during a specified three-year period.

The court opined that Plaintiff "failed to describe the documents sought with sufficient specificity as to permit [the agency] to identify and locate them," citing Matter of Lebron v Smith, 40 AD3d 515, leave to appeal denied, 9 NY3d 810.

In addition, the agency had submitted an affidavit executed by its Director of Human Resources explaining that "such information [was] not stored in any centralized manner, and that the only way to attempt a complete response to the [Plaintiff's] FOIL request would be to have the agency's thousands of employees search through their paper and electronic records." 

Thus, said the court, the agency had established "a valid basis for denying the [Plaintiff's] FOIL request" by showing that any responsive records "are not indexed in a manner that would enable the identification and location of documents" in the agency's possession. Click HERE to access this second ruling by the Appellate Division.

 

 

The New York State Budget for Fiscal 2021-2022

Click HERE to access Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's summary of the budget for the State's fiscal year 2021-2022 designed "to reimagine, rebuild and renew New York in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic."

On April 7, 2021 State Comptroller Thomas p. Dinapoli issued the following statement addressing the Legislature and Governor agreement on a new state budget.

"More than a year into the pandemic, the number of cases remain high in New York but the accelerated pace of vaccinations and job growth in many sectors indicate an improving economic outlook. We are not out of the woods, and we must remain cautious as there is still uncertainty about the epidemic and the trajectory and equity of the recovery. 

“The budget includes significant new resources from federal aid and from tax increases. Higher personal income tax rates on high-income taxpayers will likely increase the volatility of personal income tax collections, and will make combined state and local rates for New York City high-income earners the highest in the nation. Effects on the recovery of New York City and on the state and city budgets must be monitored closely.

“New revenues will support investments in education and health care programs, provide benefits to the middle class, and importantly offer relief to New Yorkers and small businesses who need it, including workers who have been excluded from federal stimulus aid. Helping struggling New Yorkers is essential for an equitable recovery.

“While much of the new resources may be temporary and necessary to meet current needs, it is important that spending not grow to unsustainable levels. The state must plan for the end of emergency federal aid and use new tax resources to fund essential services, to once again begin contributing to rainy day funds and to reduce projected out-year gaps. Long-term alignment of recurring revenues with recurring spending is essential to putting New York’s fiscal house in order.

“My office’s full analysis of the enacted state budget will be released in the following weeks.”