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Documents Released to the Media Pursuant to FOIL

Erie County receives hundreds of FOIL requests every month.  Each department is responsible for responding directly to those requests.  Often times those requests come from members of the media.  Here is where we will post those documents that seem to be of particular public interest.

2022 Blizzard

On January 5, 2023, the County Executive asked all department heads of county government to provide a memo to him regarding the response to the cataclysmic Christmas Blizzard of 2022.  He asked that they assess what went right and what went wrong.  Each department head provided the memo on or about January 13.  Attached is a single pdf of every such memo.

Please note that not every department submitted a separate substantive memo because several departments of Erie County (Budget, Law, Purchasing, Labor Relations, etc..) had very little to do with the front line response to the blizzard.  Also, the attached pdf is not every communication sent to the County Executive regarding the blizzard, which no doubt, numbers in the thousands.  Moreover, the attached pdf does not include communications between department heads or employees.  

You will see some redactions.  There are several exemptions that apply to internal communications that are applicable in this context (see NY Pub. Off. Law Section 87(2)(g)).  Specifically, we have redacted some opinions and questions, particularly those related to individually named employees.

Jeremy Toth
County Attorney

Download Department Head memos