OMH-24-15-00001-P Public Access to Records of the Office of Mental Health

6/17/15 N.Y. St. Reg. OMH-24-15-00001-P

NEW YORK STATE REGISTER

VOLUME XXXVII, ISSUE 24

June 17, 2015

RULE MAKING ACTIVITIES

OFFICE OF MENTAL HEALTH

PROPOSED RULE MAKING

NO HEARING(S) SCHEDULED

 

I.D No. OMH-24-15-00001-P

Public Access to Records of the Office of Mental Health

PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF THE State Administrative Procedure Act, NOTICE is hereby given of the following proposed rule:

Proposed Action:

This is a consensus rulemaking to amend section 510.5 of Title 14 NYCRR.

Statutory authority:

Mental Hygiene Law, section 5.09; Public Officers Law (Freedom of Information Law), art. 6

Subject:

Public Access to Records of the Office of Mental Health.

Purpose:

Make a technical correction regarding the agency's records access officer.

Text of proposed rule:

Subdivision (a) of section 510.5 of Title 14 NYCRR is amended to read as follows:

(a) The records access officer of the Office of Mental Health’s (OMH) central office [is the public information officer, whose address] shall be a lawyer in the office of counsel, designated by the Commissioner. The address for the records access officer is 44 Holland Avenue, Albany, New York 12229. The records access officer of each OMH operated psychiatric center is the facility director or his or her designee, who may be contacted at the business address of the applicable psychiatric center.

Text of proposed rule and any required statements and analyses may be obtained from:

Sue Watson, NYS Office of Mental Health, 44 Holland Avenue, Albany, NY 12229, [phone], email: [e-mail]

Data, views or arguments may be submitted to:

Same as above.

Public comment will be received until:

45 days after publication of this notice.

Consensus Rule Making Determination

This proposal is being filed as a Consensus rule on the grounds that it is non-controversial and makes a minor technical correction.

It is the policy of the Office of Mental Health (OMH) to grant ready access to its records to the public, consistent with the Freedom of Information Law. OMH’s regulations at 14 NYCRR Part 510 set forth the criteria regarding the designation and duties of records access officers and the procedures regarding requesting, granting, denying and appealing access to records. Existing regulations state that OMH’s Public Information Officer serves as its records access officer, but that information is out of date. This consensus rule making provides consistency with regulations of the Committee on Open Government and clarifies that OMH’s records access officer is a lawyer in the Office of Counsel, who is designated by the Commissioner to serve in that capacity. No other changes with respect to the address of the records access officer, or the process by which a member of the public may request access to records, are being made as a result of this proposal. As this technical change serves to correct outdated information in existing regulations, this non-controversial amendment is appropriately filed as a consensus rule.

Statutory Authority: Section 7.09 of the Mental Hygiene Law grant the Commissioner of Mental Health the power and responsibility to adopt regulations that are necessary and proper to implement matters under his or her jurisdiction. Article 6 of the Public Officers Law (Freedom of Information Law) establishes the criteria under which the public may access the records related to the process of governmental decision making.

Job Impact Statement

A Job Impact Statement is not submitted with this notice because the purpose of the amendment is to make a technical change to correct outdated provisions regarding the designation of the Office of Mental Health’s records access officer. It is evident from the rule making that there will be no adverse impact on jobs and employment opportunities.