ALBANY — The state’s Stretch Limousine Passenger Safety Task Force meeting held on Sept. 16 likely should have been open to the press and public, and not held in secret as it was that day, according to a new advisory opinion issued by the Committee on Open Government, a state-funded public watchdog.
But there may be a hitch. The same Sept. 20 advisory opinion, which the Committee on Open Government wrote at the request of the Times Union, said that a 2021 state law passed by the Legislature concerning the definition of a public body may have inadvertently excluded the task force and similar boards from the state’s open meetings law.
The 2021 law was actually designed to ensure that more state entities like the limo safety task force were subject to the state’s open meetings law, but the Committee on Open Government says it was written in such a way that it may have had the opposite effect in some cases.
“This raises a question of whether this recent change to the definition of a ‘public body’ newly excludes the task force from its previous status as clearly covered, in our opinion, by the law,” the advisory opinion states.
The task force was set up last year in response to the 2018 stretch limo crash in Schoharie that killed 20 people.
The state Department of Transportation and the Department of Motor Vehicles operate the task force, which has 11 members, including the current DOT and DMV commissioners and several former DOT commissioners.
The Times Union obtained a recording of the Sept. 16 task force meeting, in which several members indicated they want the board to delay its Oct. 1 final report, which is due to Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Legislature, until a state Inspector General report on the causes of the crash can be completed. The IG’s office is looking at the roles that DOT and DMV played in the disaster after a National Transportation Safety Board report published in 2020 found that the DOT and DMV lacked proper oversight of Prestige Limousine, the Saratoga County limo service that was involved in the crash . The two agencies have denied any wrongdoing.
The Committee on Open Government opinion letter does add that the new law has yet to be tested in court, so it is impossible to know if the new definition of a public body would actually be enforced. Public bodies in New York are subject to the state’s open meeting laws, but the new law appears to suggest that state boards whose functions are “purely advisory” are excluded.
The Committee on Open Government wrote in its Sept. 20 opinion that this may have been an oversight.
“A review of the available sponsor’s memorandum supports a view that the legislature did not intend to exclude (boards like the task force) previously covered by the law,” the opinion states.
The 2021 law’s main sponsor in the Assembly was Assemblywoman Amy Paulin. Her spokeswoman told the Times Union that Paulin would review the legislation for any potential errors but had not gotten back to the Times Union as of Monday.
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The Sept. 16 meeting, which was held via video conference, was the first that the DOT and DMV held in secret. Several of the task force members said they were not told they were meeting without the press or public allowed to watch. DOT spokesman Joe Morrissey has claimed that the task force has always been excluded from the state’s open meetings law, which the Committee on Open Government says is incorrect.
“Since its formation, the task force has worked diligently to review recommendations and safety measures to better protect limousine transportation passengers,” Morrissey told the Times Union. “This work has included three meetings open to the public as well as a public hearing. The Task Force continues to progress toward a final report as required under the law.”