You can file a FOIL – Freedom of Information Law – request by sending an email to townclerk@viennaNY.gov, or simply mailing to the Vienna Town Clerk at PO Box 250, North Bay, NY 13123.  Be as specific and brief as possible regarding what records you are requesting. Your request should be a short, focused paragraph and not multiple pages long. A FOIL request form, which may be helpful, but not required, is available here. FOIL Application Form

Time limits
Within five business days, your request should be acknowledged in writing by whomever you sent it to.  The government has 20 business days from acknowledgment to provide the records, which can be extended for reasonable circumstances with a deadline date provided.

Exemptions
While government records are presumed to be open, some items are exempt and do not have to be disclosed. Common reasons a FOIL request may be denied:

• Disclosure would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy;
• Disclosure would impair present or imminent contract awards or collective bargaining negotiations;
• Records compiled for law enforcement purposes whose disclosure would interfere with investigations or judicial proceedings;
• Disclosure could endanger the life or safety of any person;
• Inter-agency or intra-agency materials which are not statistical or factual tabulations, instructions to staff that affect the public, final agency policy or determinations, or external audits.

Fees
For hard copies, a fee of 25 cents will be charged. To avoid the fee, you can request just to view the records, or ask to receive them electronically. For large requests, your records may be placed on a thumb drive, which will be charged its cost.
There is also the 2-hour rule: if copying takes more than 2 hours, the government can charge the hourly rate of the lowest-level employee for the copying work instead of 25 cents per page. They cannot charge for search or review time, only copying time.