NYC's open-records law is behind schedule: a plan due in June still isn't public

New York City is running late on a law meant to make it easier to get public records. Local Law 199 of 2025 requires every city agency to receive, track and answer Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests through the city's OpenRecords portal, but the first required step, an implementation plan, still has not been released, The City Reporter reported Tuesday.

What the law requires

The bill, sponsored by Manhattan Council Member Gale Brewer with 37 Council member sponsors in all, passed the Council unanimously in November 2025 and became law on Dec. 25, 2025, according to the Council's legislation record. It directs the Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS) to:

• run a single portal that logs every request, whether it arrives online or directly at an agency, with its receipt date, expected response date and outcome;
• send the mayor and the Council speaker an implementation plan within six months;
• have the expanded portal working within 18 months of the law taking effect.

According to Reinvent Albany, one of the groups that helped write it, the law also means records released to one requester are published for everyone after 14 days, the city must post a directory of agency records officers, and new FOIL performance indicators are added to the Mayor's Management Report. The City Reporter said the updated law also brings in requests made to the City Council and the five borough presidents.

Where it stands

The implementation plan was due in late June 2026, Reinvent Albany and other transparency groups wrote in a September letter to Records Commissioner Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz, who was appointed in April. The groups noted that DORIS has already published the required list of FOIL and appeals officers.

A DORIS spokesperson told The City Reporter that the plan will go to Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Council Speaker Julie Menin in mid-November, but did not explain the delay. Brewer said the Council plans to hold a hearing in January. "Nothing's happening," she told the outlet.

Why it matters

City agencies are known for slow FOIL responses. Reinvent Albany's 2025 analysis found the city receives about 170,000 requests a year and that 16% were still open a year later, with large backlogs at agencies such as the NYPD, the Department of Education and the Mayor's Office. The City Reporter said one of its own requests, filed in September 2019 for 911 system contract records, has had its deadline extended 60 times by the Office of Technology and Innovation and is now projected for Dec. 1.

Anyone can already file a request at the OpenRecords portal; the new law is meant to bring every agency onto it and make the status of requests public.