FOIL Request No. 2022-089773 - Larson

[Gunnar Larson]

What in the hell could be going on Downtown?

Gunnar

On Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 9:54 AM Gunnar Larson <g at xny.io> wrote:

> SENT VIA EMAIL
> (G at xny.io)
> January 19, 2023
> Gunnar D. Larson
> xNY.io – Bank.org
> 406 West 25th Street
> New York, NY 10001
> Re: Freedom of Information Law (“FOIL”) Tracking No. 2022-089773
> Dear Gunnar D. Larson:
> I write in response to the FOIL request that you submitted to the New York
> State
> Department of Financial Services (“Department”) on January 26, 2022, which
> states as follows:
> “Please submit any and all records related to the LendingClub.com
> September 11 Board of Directors resignation below. The date of the
> resignation is in question. You may understand the sensitive nature of the
> date of the resignation. Gunnar Larson Sun, Oct 24, 2021, 5:06 PM to Anuj,
> Investor, Press Hello there: Thank you very much for the reply. Gunnar On
> Sun, Oct 24, 2021, 11:36 AM Anuj Nayar wrote: Hi Gunnar On September
> 11, 2021, in connection with her nomination to serve as superintendent of
> the New York State Department of Financial Services, Adrienne Harris
> notified us of her resignation, effective September 12, 2021, from the
> Company’s Board. Details can be found in the 8k filed on 9/15/21 (below)
> https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001409970/bbc437e4-2920-
> 4d5d-8e0d-86bca622f0ca.pdf From: Gunnar Larson Date: Saturday,
> October 23, 2021 at 9:37 AM To: Investor Relations , Press Cc: Gunnar
> Larson Subject: [EXT] LendingClub: Current Board of Directors
> CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not
> click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know
> the content is safe. Dear Madam or Sir: Good day to you. Surveying market
> research, I was wondering if you can kindly confirm, from LendingClub's
> July 15, 2021 press release: Is Ms. Adrienne Harris currently a member of
> LendingClub's board of directors?
> https://www.prnewswire.com/newsreleases/lendingclub-appoints-adrienne-harris-to-its-board-of-directors-
> 301335198.html#financial-modal [prnewswire.com] Reviewing your
> website, Ms. Harris is not
> referenced:https://www.lendingclub.com/company/leadership Bloomberg
> and other sources do not reference Ms. Harris as a LendingClub board
> member: https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/LC:US [bloomberg.com]
> Sending you the very best regards. Thank you, Gunnar -- Gunnar Larson -
> xNY.io [xny.io] | Bank.org [bank.org] MSc [unic.ac.cy] - Digital Currency
> MBA [unic.ac.cy] - Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ip) G at xNY.io +1-
> 646-454-9107 New York, New York 10001.”
> Public Officers Law (“POL”) § 89(3) requires a FOIL request to reasonably
> describe the
> records sought. This means that the description of the documents sought
> must be sufficient to
> allow the agency to locate and identify the documents requested. See
> Matter of Farbman & Sons
> v New York City Health & Hosps. Corp., 62 NY2d 75 (1984); Matter of Wright
> v Hippolyte,
> 2014 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1247, 2014 NY Slip Op 30705(U) (Sup. Ct. N.Y. County
> March 20,
> 2014). The Committee on Open Government, which is responsible for, inter
> alia, issuing
> advisory opinions regarding FOIL, has opined that “[w]hether a request
> reasonably describes the
> records sought . . . may be dependent upon the terms of a request, as well
> as the nature of an
> agency’s filing or record-keeping system.” Committee on Open Government
> (“Committee”)
> Opinion No. FOIL-AO-16073 (July 17, 2006). In the Committee’s Opinion No.
> FOIL-AO-11960
> (February 17, 2000), it opined that a FOIL request that sought records
> “‘tending to support’ a
> particular statement, or ‘utilized’, ‘used’ or ‘relating to’ various
> activities of the Department of
> Environmental Conservation” was not a reasonably described request for
> records under Public
> Officers Law Article 6. The Committee stated that a response to such a
> request “would involve
> making a series of judgments based on opinions, some of which would be
> subjective, mental
> impressions”, and require “ascertaining which records might ‘tend to
> support’ a statement [that]
> would involve an attempt to render a judgment regarding the use, utility,
> accuracy or value of
> records.” The Committee held that “for purposes of [FOIL], a request for
> such materials would
> not meet the standard of ‘reasonably describing’ the records sought, for
> such a request would not
> enable the [agency] to locate and identify the records in the manner
> envisioned by that statute.”
> Your FOIL request fails to meet the “reasonably describe” requirement in
> POL § 89(3)
> because it includes vague and imprecise phrases such as “any and “all,”
> and “related to” and it
> does not clearly describe the records that you are seeking to enable the
> Department to conduct a
> reasonable search for those records. Such vague phrases are imprecise
> terms that require
> Department staff to make subjective judgments as to whether a document is
> responsive to your
> FOIL request. When such subjective judgments are required of staff, the
> FOIL request may be
> denied for failure to meet the reasonably describe requirement in POL §
> 89(3). Additionally, the
> Department does not have an indexing system that allows it to search all
> of its paper and
> electronic records by terms that may appear in such records. Accordingly,
> the Department is
> denying your FOIL request on the basis that the request is not reasonably
> described.
> Notwithstanding the foregoing issues with your FOIL request, please be
> advised that, in
> August of 2021, the Superintendent resigned from the Board of Directors of
> the Lending Club,
> effective September 12, 2021.
>
> In accordance with POL § 89(4), you may appeal this determination within
> 30 days by
> sending an email to FOIL.Appeals at dfs.ny.gov.
> Very truly yours,
> Pascale Jean-Baptiste
> FOIL Officer
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: JeanBaptiste, Pascale (DFS) <Pascale.JeanBaptiste at dfs.ny.gov>
> Date: Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 9:51 AM
> Subject: FOIL Request No. 2022-089773 - Larson
> To: Gunnar Larson <g at xny.io>
> Cc: Garrett, Carmen (DFS) <Carmen.Garrett at dfs.ny.gov>
>
>
> Good Morning:
>
>
>
> Please see the attached determination in response to your FOIL request.
> Thank you.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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