Hudson cites city charter oversight authority over shelter visits

Thank you.

I, you know, I am going to belabor the point of the.

the NDA piece, the state law that I believe you referenced, social services law 136, was that it?

Is that accurate?

Okay.

Because that is the protection of public welfare records.

And the first line says the names or addresses of persons applying for or receiving public assistance and care shall not be included

in any published report or printed in any newspaper or reported at any public meeting except meetings of the county, blah, blah, blah.

And so that seems to me to be very specific to names and addresses or privacy, personally identifying information for individuals.

Whereas in the city charter section 29, under power of investigation and oversight,

It states that the council, acting as a committee of the whole and each standing or special committee of the council,

through hearings or otherwise, may investigate any matters within its jurisdiction relating to the property,

affairs, or government of the city or of any county within the city or to any other powers of the council or to the effectuation of the purposes or provisions of this charter or any laws relating to the city

or to any county within the city.

Now, I'm not an attorney.

I know you're not an attorney, so maybe we can let our attorneys or respective attorneys hash it out.

But my interpretation of this is that we have the authority as members of the

this body to investigate any matters, as it says, within its jurisdiction relating to the property of any city agency.

And I think the law that you referenced is specific to personally identifying records.

And I would also argue that as council members who provide constituent services every day in our offices,

We are not sharing personally identifying information, and we have stopgaps and practices and policies within the body that prevent us from sharing and

personally identifying information for those who we serve every single day.

So I would argue that we should have.

The authority and the ability to make unannounced visits to shelters.

And I know we did one last night, but fully and truly unannounced the way we see it as duly elected council members.

So I just wanted to make that point.