Oswego County’s New (and Improved?) ‘.gov’ Website

You may have heard Oswego County is getting a .gov website URL, on Halloween for some reason! You might have heard this from the Oswego County website, which copy/pasted the story from the only OFFICIAL paywalled news outlet for important press releases directly from our local representatives and public servants, Oswego News Now! Let’s look at the requirements of the new law Oswego will be complying with:

General Municipal Law Section 300: Municipal websites

1. All municipal corporations having a population, as shown by the latest preceding decennial federal census, equal to or greater than one thousand five hundred persons, shall maintain an official website with a “.gov” domain name that is accessible to the public and update such website regularly, as follows: the official website shall contain basic information on the municipality including but not limited to hours of operations, elected officials and services provided and the website shall contain a privacy policy that is prominently posted and written in plain language that informs website visitors of any personal information that is being collected and how it is being used …

2. All municipal websites of municipal corporations … shall, at a minimum, contain the following information:

a. all documents required by subdivision seven of § 30 (Reports);
b. notice of all municipal elections, public hearings and public meetings including regular board or legislative meetings;
c. agenda and minutes of municipal meetings as required by article seven of the public officers law; and
d. an up to date version of, or an active hyperlink to, the municipality’s codes or local laws and resolutions …

Very interesting – these minimum requirements seem to be well beyond the current capabilities of our current website, so I have high hopes. I’m sure someone has gone through to review the website for compliance, and will continue to find errors and out of date information up until the end of the year – like, go to the current “Records” page on the county website right now (https://www.oswegocounty.com/government/county_clerk/records_center_.php) and you will see the important and timely update that “ALL OFFICES ARE CLOSED TODAY 2/18/2025”! It might also be helpful to have something here to name the public records officer, in case you need to know how to file a records request for, say, information that should be shared on the website!

Or maybe you want to know how much it would cost to get copies of said records – let’s head to the Fees page (https://www.oswegocounty.com/government/county_clerk/fees_.php) to see everything the county clerk says you need to know: “Please see the schedule of fees for a complete list of fees in our office: Schedule of Fees 2024” – incredible! A link to a brochure that doesn’t tell you that electronic copies of said records must be provided free of charge by state and federal law! In fact, these prices seem arbitrary, and possibly NOT the actual cost for producing said documents, as required by NYS! I’m sure the people making our new website are ALSO finding these things that Oswego County needs to update to comply with pre-existing NYS legislation! (https://newyork.public.law/laws/n.y._public_officers_law_article_6)

Let’s say you go ahead and call or email a request for public information to the county clerk — you will most likely get referred to the private, subscription-based website the county has apparently uploaded all our (your) information on! You can find the link all the way at the bottom of the County Clerk homepage where it says “Deeds, Mortgages and other County Clerk Records can be found at Oswego County Online Records”, which send you to “searchiqs.com”, which requires an account to view our (your) public information! Conveniently select from one of these amazing subscriptions:

Oswego County, NY
ONE DAY ACCOUNT: $15.00
Subscription: 1 Day
Download/Print: $5.00 per Document

IN STATE ACCOUNT: $300.00
Subscription: 90 Days
Download/Print: $0.50 per Image

OUT OF STATE ACCOUNT: $600.00
Subscription: 90 Days
Download/Print: $0.50 per Image

If you do manage to access this website, each document will have the disclaimer: “This website provides easy access to many of our public records. Due to confidentiality laws, all of our records have not been released to this search. At this time there are limited court records available online. This site is NOT intended for the purpose of a full title search. If a record you are searching is not accessible, please contact our office for more information” – yet this disclaimer is not found on the Oswego County website, nor is this one: “We do not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of information provided through the Service. The Service could include technical or other mistakes, inaccuracies, or typographical errors. The documents available on the website are not official copies”, or this one: “This information is provided by the Clerk as a reference. Any questions about data availability should be directed to the County.”

Apparently there is also a “New Fraud Alert Program Sign Up” from the same website advertised on our website – not sure how “new” the program is considering other things haven’t been updated since February, but I’m sure it’s worth it: “Sign up to receive an email when documents are recorded under your name. If you have any questions about what has been recorded, please contact your local municipality” … so, my local municipality knows the information being uploaded, but won’t alert me themselves? Yet searchiqs.com will know IF something is uploaded? Is the county paying for this service, and if so, why does it cost us money to access it?

So hopefully this will be fixed with the new and improved .gov website (implying Oswego County is an actual, real life place that abides by state and federal laws). If you want access to public records for free, as you are entitled to, without going in person and/or paying $.25 per page, file a FOIL request directly to the clerk’s email at [email protected] where they will STILL try to say the existence of this privately run, costly, broken, and confusing website searchiqs.com satisfy their official responsibilities to follow FOIL’s accuracy requirement [§87(1)], Access fee requirements (you may request digital files, which cost nothing to reproduce), and NY’s legal evidence standards (official records must be certified on request).

This wouldn’t be so bad, except SO MANY other things on the County website currently necessitate an information request – like, for example, when city council meeting minutes are just nowhere to be found, mysteriously!

Next, let’s take a look at the Oswego County Sheriff’s Department page, which has a helpful link to their own “Application for Public Access to Records Freedom of Information Law (FOIL)” (https://oswegocounty.rja.revize.com/forms/8433) that requires that you give your first and last name, phone number, AND address (which you are not required to give per NYS FOIL!), and “agree to pay $0.25 per page/ $3.00 for oversized copies of requested records and any necessary postage (if applicable)” (which does not apply to digital records, as stated before).
The Sheriff’s Department would know this if the link they provide to (ostensibly) the NYS FOIL website FAQ actually worked – it instead leads to a “page not found” error, meaning this hasn’t been updated in some time (https://dos.ny.gov/coog/freedomfaq.html). The link they should provide is instead https://dos.ny.gov/foil, which they should read up on! Simply send your request to their email address and let them know that you will report them if they fail to acknowledge within 5 days, and/or fail to respond within 30.

Finally, let’s look at the Oswego County District Attorney’s Office page, which gives a helpful list of all the contact information for each Assistant District Attorney – except they all seem to have the same phone number! In fact, all 24 people at the DA’s Office have the same phone number! If you have ever had the misfortune of calling them you will find that the only way to speak to a human, is to be forwarded to “the victim advocate”, which is an unmonitored phone line in the DA’s Office that USED to be checked by non-profit advocates who do not work for the DA, and only on specific days, who do not have access or knowledge about any information on your case – otherwise it will just tell you to check the website for their list of phone numbers… which are all the same, and lead you back to the automated line!

But at least there are helpful links on the DA’s page – like if you DID need updates on your case, you may find this link on the Victim’s Rights & Information page: “If you wish to stay informed of upcoming court appearances on a particular case, please contact the court directly,” which sends you to courtreference.com, a third-party website that explicitly states:

“Court Reference powered by Intelius does not provide consumer reports and is not a consumer reporting agency. We provide sensitive information (criminal record, address, phone number, property, civil judgment, and more) that can be used to satisfy your curiosity, protect your family, and find the truth about people in your life” and “We strive to provide up-to-date information, however, Courtreference.com is not an official source of information for any court or court clerk. No legal advice is offered here and this site is not an alternative to competent legal counsel.

You can find accurate and up-to-date information on the actual https://www.nycourts.gov/ website – because the standard for .gov websites is higher than a .com site — Can’t wait to see if that’s true!

Wat Tyler

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