It would seem that the public has a legitimate interest in this information, and it would seem that neither the County nor a legislator would have a legitimate reason in restricting release of this information. Such information would be available if a search of the County’s real property records was made, which would be time-consuming and arduous.
(attached FOIL records file omitted for anonymity)
You raise a very interesting question.
As you point out, ownership of real property is a matter of public record and I don’t get why they would black that information out.
I see they also blacked out employment information, which could possibly be a conflict of interest in some instances as far as contracting with an entity etc.
I assume their argument will be that the information was redacted for privacy reasons. It is well established that public employees enjoy a lesser degree of privacy.
An important reason for completing these disclosure forms is so that they can be viewed by the public and news media to ascertain possible conflicts of interests. It is hard to do that when addresses and employment information is blacked out.
The best way to address this may be to pass what you have found to a reporter who can draw attention to this by writing an article about it. I know reporters who may be interested.
You may also want to file an appeal objecting to the fact that information was redacted and asking for an explanation as to why.
