In recognition of Crime Victims week, April 23rd-29th, the Committee reported and the Assembly passed legislation to help crime victims and their families regain control of their lives.

The nine-bill legislative package covered a wide range of victim assistance issues, including bills that would:

• ensure that crime victims are informed of the assistance available to them through the Crime Victims Board (CVB) by requiring police officers and district attorneys to provide information to crime victims. A.3691 (Destito) was enacted into law as Chapter 173 of the Laws of 2006;

• provide victims whose claims are dismissed by the CVB with a statement of reasons for the decision. A.1236-A (Dinowitz) was enacted into law as Chapter 167 of the Laws of 2006;

• expedite the CVB claims process, giving priority to emergency claims (A.4195, DiNapoli);

• create an ombudsman to investigate complaints and assist victims through the claims process (A.3577, DiNapoli);

• require at least one member of the CVB to be a health care provider experienced in treating crime victims (A.4194, DiNapoli);

• create a victims’ assistance program that would require all CVB members to take a course in crime victim assistance (A.3690-A, Destito);

• make parents and guardians who experience loss of earnings due to the hospitalization of a child victim eligible for a crime victims award (A.2941-A, Diaz, R);

• authorize the CVB to reimburse crime victims for transportation costs for necessary court appearances (A.5512, Ortiz); and

• allocate fines imposed on violators of the state antitrust laws to the CVB, putting more money into the programs that help victims recover (A.257, Destito).

Since September 2005, the Committee has held six hearings on various disaster preparedness and response issues. The Committee held hearings jointly with the Committees on Corporations and Cities on September 29, 2005, October 31, 2005, and on July 7, 2006, to review New York City’s emergency evacuation plan. As a direct result of these hearings, the New York City Office of Emergency Management updated their emergency evacuation plan to include enhanced public outreach and include vulnerable populations (e.g., nursing homes) in the evacuation plan.

On February 9, 2006, the Committee participated in a joint hearing with the Committee on Environmental Conservation on Dam Safety. Federal, State, New York City and local officials testified about the responsibility and upkeep of New York State dams. Citizen advocacy groups testified about concerns regarding safety and public awareness.

On December 15, 2005, and on March 9, 2006, the Committee participated in joint hearings with the Committee on Local Governments on State Disaster Preparedness. State and local officials, as well as private industry and consumer groups, participated in the hearings to discuss disaster planning and response. As a direct result of these hearings, $5.7 million was allocated in the State fiscal year 2006-07 budget for counties to use in formulating county disaster preparedness plans.

As a result of all these hearings, the Assembly passed a package of bills that would strengthen the State’s disaster preparedness efforts. The package includes the following bills, which would:

• require the Disaster Preparedness Commission (DPC) to make public service announcements in multiple languages for television and radio stations to inform the public on how to respond to a disaster. A.2808-A (Diaz, R) was enacted into law as Chapter 171 of the Laws of 2006;

• require the state and counties to include in state and coun-ty disaster preparedness plans coordination of programs to assist individuals with household pets or service animals. (A.9292-A, Glick). This bill has passed both houses and is awaiting action by the Governor;

• require the Disaster Preparedness Commission to convene regional meetings to assist counties in the preparation and coordination of local disaster preparedness plans. In addition, it would require each chief executive of a county to share the county’s local disaster preparedness plan with the chief executive of adjoining counties on an annual basis (A.11741, Sweeney). This bill passed the Assembly, but the Senate failed to act on it.

• require each county to maintain a registry of persons of all ages with disabilities for the purpose of evacuation (A.11693, Destito). This practice is currently optional and only two counties in the State maintain such a registry. This bill passed the Assembly, but the Senate failed to act on it

• require any city over 500,000 in population to use computer modeling technology to develop evacuation time estimates (A.9160-A, Brodsky). This bill passed the Assembly, but the Senate failed to act on it.

• require the Disaster Preparedness Commission to work with counties to address inconsistencies in disaster evacuation plans, require the DPC to annually review plans, and add to the list of local organizations that counties should consult in the planning process (A.10739-B, Brodsky). This bill passed the Assembly, but the Senate failed to act on it.

	Chairwoman Destito presides over a Governmental Operations Committee meeting as she and committee members mull over legislative proposals during the 2006 Legislative Session in Albany.

The package would:

• provide consumers with the ability to “freeze” their credit reports to guard against identity theft, allowing consumers to prohibit access to the personal information maintained in their credit reports without their consent, thereby preventing identity thieves from taking out new loans and credit in a consumer’s name. A.7349-D (Pheffer) was enacted into law as Chapter 63 of the Laws of 2006;

• require all businesses or business persons to take detailed steps when disposing of personal information, including: shredding records before disposal; destroying personal information contained in the record before disposal; modifying the record to make personal information unreadable; or taking action consistent with commonly acceptable industry practices that they reasonably believe will ensure that no unauthorized person will have access to personal information contained in the records. A.8456-B (Pheffer) was enacted into law as Chapter 65 of the Laws of 2006;

• restrict businesses from filing personal identifying information as part of a public record that is not relevant and necessary to accomplish the purpose of the filing. (A7670-D, Pheffer);

• combat the unauthorized use of Social Security numbers by limiting their use as a means to identify state employees. (A.10074, Destito);

• require state and local employees to redact personal identifying information from a record before it is made publicly available on the internet. (A.10075-A, Destito);

• place limits on the use and disclosure of an individual’s Social Security account number (SSN), including: restrictions on businesses’ ability to print an individual’s SSN on mailings or on any card or tag required to access products, services, or benefits, prohibitions of business requirements that an individual transmit his or her unencrypted SSN over the internet; and requires businesses that possess Social Security numbers to implement appropriate safeguards and limit unnecessary employee access to Social Security numbers. A.10076-D (Pheffer) passed both houses and is awaiting action by the Governor; and

• create an Identity Theft Prevention and Mitigation Unit within the Consumer Protection Board, create an Identity Security Task Force, and require law-enforcement agencies to take identity theft complaints and provide reports of those instances. (A.10077, Pheffer)

	Chairwoman Destito, center, looks on as the governor signs into law a bill expanding the Freedom of Information Law to expand the public’s right to know.

• strengthen compliance with the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) by requiring the award of attorney’s fees when agencies fail to respond in a timely fashion or deny access to records without justification (A.9661, Destito). This bill passed the Assembly but the Senate failed to advance it. A compromise, A.11449-A (Destito) passed both houses. This measure will eliminate the requirement that a record be of significant interest to the general public in order to be awarded attorney’s fees. This will effectively eliminate a barrier to the award of attorney’s fees when an agency fails to adhere to the law while maintaining judicial discretion. A.11449-A was enacted into law as Chapter 492 of the Laws of 2006;

• enable agencies and municipalities, to the extent practicable, to receive and respond to FOIL requests by e-mail. A.7993-B (Latimer) was enacted into law as Chapter 182 of the Laws of 2006;

• require agencies to take steps to make information subject to FOIL accessible electronically by directing agencies, when designing its information retrieval methods, to do so in a manner that permits the segregation and retrieval of information to provide for maximum public access (A.8007, Paulin). This bill was vetoed by the Governor;

• strengthen the Open Meetings Law by providing alternative judicial remedies to the courts when any aspect of a meeting is closed in violation of the Law. Courts would be authorized to impose a $500 fine on the public body that engaged in the violation and would be able to reverse an action or remand an action back to the public body to take appropriate action (A.1258, John). This bill passed the Assembly, but the Senate failed to act on it;

• requires public officers and bodies to provide interpreters and assistive listening devices for the hearing impaired at public hearings under certain conditions (A.9349, Wright). This bill passed the Assembly, but the Senate failed to act on it;

• require records that are to be discussed at an open meeting to be available to the public upon request at least 72 hours prior to the meeting (A.9771, Markey). This bill passed the Assembly, but the Senate failed to act on it;

• allow the meetings of public bodies to be photographed and broadcast (A.9812, Destito). This bill passed the Assembly, but the Senate failed to act on it; and

• clarify that public records of the State Ethics Commission and the Legislative Ethics Committee that are available for public inspection are also available for copying (A.9207, Destito). This bill passed the Assembly, but the Senate failed to act on it.

	Chairwoman Destito listens to testimony about the Minority and Women Business Enterprise programs at one of the hearings held throughout the state. Assemblywoman Destito is flanked by Assemblywoman Peoples and Assemblyman Brodsky.

The Assembly has held a series of hearings across the State on the effectiveness of the MWBE program. MWBE owners who testified expressed dissatisfaction with the effectiveness and implementation of Article 15-A.* In 2005, to address the concerns raised, the Speaker of the Assembly created the Governmental Operations Subcommittee on Oversight of MWBEs dedicated to reviewing and addressing policy concerns in this area. In 2006, the Assembly passed a package of nine bills to strengthen and improve Article 15-A. The provisions of the package would:

• provide for a streamlined certification process (A.9243-A, Destito);

• authorize a state disparity study to examine the number of state contracts awarded to MWBEs (9256-A, Peoples);

• create state and regional MWBE advocates (A.9839, Titus);

• establish an Article 15-A imple-mentation fund (A.1622-A, Millman);

• establish standards for State agen- cy goal submission procedures (A.3471-A, Brodsky);

• reform Article 15-A by requir-ing the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) to file annual MWBE reports, creating a state registry to enable MWBEs to be aware of contracting opportunities, encouraging joint ventures, partnerships, and mentor-protégé relationships between prime contractors and MWBEs, eliminating the use of automatic waivers, and requiring recertification of MWBEs every three years (A.6527, Cook);

• require agencies to post contractor utilization plans on the agency website (A.9067-A Millman);

• establish a mentor-protégé pro-gram for small and minority and women-owned businesses (A.9068, Millman); and

• improve outreach efforts of the Department of Economic Development’s (DED) Divisions for Small Business and Minority and Women’s Business Development (A.9070, Millman)

The Assembly was successful in getting the streamlined certification process, the State disparity study and a statewide advocate program enacted in the state fiscal year 2006-07 budget.

*Hearings and roundtables to obtain MWBE participant’s feedback were held in Buffalo, New York City, Syracuse and Utica. Hearings on State Authority and Agency Compliance were held in Albany and New York City.