FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) request is a formal submission made to ask for information from government agencies at different levels. This assignment will focus on education FOIL requests to New York City's local government. A FOIL request related to education matters in New York City is submitted to the Central Records Access Officer in the Office of Legal Services at the city’s department of education. The department requires that the FOIL requests submitted be narrowed down and not broad to facilitate the location of the specific record (s) requested. The FOIL request form for the New York City department of education cannot be downloaded from the agency’s website. However, one can submit a request to the agency using an online request form from the open records portal for all the New York City departments. In addition, written requests can be submitted to the agency either in person or through mail, fax, or e-mail. The department requires that the requests are handled by the respective department. This is characteristic of scientific management which requires the assignment of a department be based on its functions (Pammer, 2015). Once the form is submitted, it is received by the Records Access Officer (RAO) who within a period of five business days after receiving the request should provide the requester with the records requested. If the FOIL request is denied, the RAO should inform the requester of the denial in writing and give a reason for it. In cases where the request is ambiguous, the RAO informs the requester of the situation and if possible informs the requester on how to file a specific request. The RAO consults with the Custodian of Records (COR) to determine the amount of time needed to gather and send the records. In situations where it is determined that the requested records or a part of them is not allowed for disclosure, the RAO informs the requester of the inability to disclose the records within 20 working days. The time frame to respond to a request can be expanded in situations where the DOE is waiting for the person requesting records to reply to correspondence on charges. The agency does not ask for a fee to conduct the procedure. However, when the records involved are voluminous, the agency charges a fee for cost-effectiveness purposes. For oversize documents up to a size of 9 by 14 inches, the department charges 25 cents for each page. The charges for other records may include as determined by the records access officer a fee that is equal to hourly pay for the least paid employee at the department, the actual cost of storage media given to the requester, and the cost of seeking for outside professional services in preparation of copies in cases where the equipment at the department is not adequate to reproduce the records. There is evidence of scientific management in the New York City DOE. Work is standardized in the department through task setting. Task setting refers to the process of explaining what an employee is expected to do and the time the task should take (Tompkins, 2005). The department explains what an RAO and COR is expected to do and the time they should take to respond to FOIL requests depending on different situations. In addition, work regarding FOIL requests at the department is planned in advance. According to Taylor, work standardization involves programming of work in advance before implementation by establishing procures that should be followed to the end (Tompkins, 2005). This ensures that the possibility of committing errors is minimized (Tompkins, 2005). There are established systematic procedures for submitting a FOIL request at the department. Although the procedure is effective in improving performance and efficiency in the department, it could lead to monotony. Procedures prevent autonomy, use of different skills, and identity/importance of work.
References
Tompkins, J. (2005). Chapter 5: Scientific Management Theory. Organization theory and public management. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
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Pammer, W. (2015, July 22). Week 3: Scientific management [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTtXBVZNkx8
