REQUEST FOR NAMES AND ADDRESSES OF RESIDENTS PARTICIPATING IN THE DEER MANAGEMENT PROGRAM, ALLOWING BOW AND ARROW HUNTING ON THEIR PROPERTY, SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRANTED.

The Third Department determined the request for the names and addresses of residents participating in the deer management program should have been granted by the village. The residents at issue allowed deer hunting (bow and arrow) on their property:

To justify the redaction of the names, addresses and other identifying information relating to participants in the deer management program, respondent asserts that disclosure of this information “would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy” (Public Officers Law § 87 [2] [b]) or “could endanger the li[ves] or safety” of the participants (Public Officers Law § 87 [2] [f]). Turning first to the personal privacy exemption, respondent failed to demonstrate that the redacted information fell into any of the categories of information that the Legislature has specifically determined would qualify as an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy if disclosed (see Public Officers Law § 89 [2] [b]). In the absence of proof establishing the applicability of one of these specifically-enumerated categories, we evaluate whether disclosure would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy “by balancing the privacy interests at stake against the public interest in disclosure of the information” … . Respondent, however, has not articulated the implicated privacy interests, if any, that are to be weighed against the community’s interest in knowing the locations in which deer-hunting activities may take place. …

Nor did respondent demonstrate that disclosure of the redacted information “could endanger the li[ves] or safety” of the program’s participants (Public Officers Law § 87 [2] [f]). While respondent was only required to demonstrate “‘a possibility of endangerment'” … , respondent’s submissions, which included the [affidavit of] … the Mayor of the Village of Cayuga Heights, which adjoined the Village of Lansing, fell short of such demonstration. [The village clerk] merely stated that deer management programs “can be contentious” and that board members of the Village of Cayuga Heights had received threats when they “considered” those programs. The Mayor of the Village of Cayuga Heights confirmed that “[p]roponents of [the] culling operation, including [her] and other Village officials, ha[d] received death threats and other threats of personal harm.” However, neither affidavit established that similar threats had been made in the Village of Lansing or that participation in the deer management program was controversial in that community. Matter of Laveck v Village Bd. of Trustees of the Vil. of Lansing, 2016 NY Slip Op 08150, 3rd Dept 12-1-16

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LAW (REQUEST FOR NAMES AND ADDRESSES OF RESIDENTS PARTICIPATING IN THE DEER MANAGEMENT PROGRAM, ALLOWING BOW AND ARROW HUNTING ON THEIR PROPERTY, SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRANTED)/DEER MANAGEMENT PROGRAM (FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LAW, REQUEST FOR NAMES AND ADDRESSES OF RESIDENTS PARTICIPATING IN THE DEER MANAGEMENT PROGRAM, ALLOWING BOW AND ARROW HUNTING ON THEIR PROPERTY, SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRANTED)