City wins FOIL lawsuit

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POUGHKEEPSIE – A lawsuit filed by End the New Jim Crow Action Network (ENJAN) member Bill Rubin against the City of Poughkeepsie and Mayor Rob Rolison has been dismissed by Supreme Court Justice Christi Acker.  Rubin had claimed that the city was withholding records he sought under the Freedom of Information Act.

When the common council was discussing police reform late in 2020, Rubin filed a freedom of information request seeking a tremendous amount of data from the police department that had been compiled over a 10-year period.  The lengthy request, submitted on November 13, 2020, was in two parts.  The police department advised Rubin that, due to staffing issues and the amount of data requested, the city would need 90 days to comply.

On January 14 of this year, the police department turned over 75 pages of the requested data to City Administrator Marc Nelson, who then forwarded the documents to Rubin.  He was advised by the city that the second part of his request could not be fulfilled because the city doesn’t compile data that is already available on a public website.  Nelson provided the site where Rubin could collect the data.

On the following day, Rubin filed an Article 78 proceeding in Supreme Court seeking the records, attorney’s fees, and litigation costs.  He named the City of Poughkeepsie and Mayor Rob Rolison as Respondents.  On April 6, Judge Acker dismissed Rubin’s lawsuit, denying his attempt to access the records that the city does not have, and the costs associated with the lawsuit.

Mayor Rolison said the city “takes our responsibility with FOIL requests very seriously. We do the very best we can with limited resources, especially because of the COVID-19 public health crisis. We respond to these in a quick manner, and I am appreciative the judge saw that and ruled in favor of the City of Poughkeepsie.”




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