Title PBO, Public Officers

§ 1. Short title. This chapter shall be known as the "Public Officers Law."

§ 10. Official oaths. Every officer shall take and file the oath of office required by law, and every judicial officer of the unified court system, in addition, shall file a copy of said oath in the office of court administration, before he shall be entitled to enter upon the di…

§ 100. Legislative declaration. It is essential to the maintenance of a democratic society that the public business be performed in an open and public manner and that the citizens of this state be fully aware of and able to observe the performance of public officials and attend …

§ 101. Short title. This article shall be known and may be cited as "Open Meetings Law".

§ 102. Definitions. As used in this article: 1. "Meeting" means the official convening of a public body for the purpose of conducting public business, including the use of videoconferencing for attendance and participation by the members of the public body. 2. "Public body" mean…

§ 103. Open meetings and executive sessions. (a) Every meeting of a public body shall be open to the general public, except that an executive session of such body may be called and business transacted thereat in accordance with section ninety-five of this article. (b) Public bod…

* § 103-a. Videoconferencing by public bodies. 1. For the purposes of this section, "local public body" shall mean a public corporation as defined in section sixty-six of the general construction law, a political subdivision as defined in section one hundred of the general munic…

§ 104. Public notice. 1. Public notice of the time and place of a meeting scheduled at least one week prior thereto shall be given or electronically transmitted to the news media and shall be conspicuously posted in one or more designated public locations at least seventy-two ho…

§ 105. Conduct of executive sessions. 1. Upon a majority vote of its total membership, taken in an open meeting pursuant to a motion identifying the general area or areas of the subject or subjects to be considered, a public body may conduct an executive session for the below en…

§ 106. Minutes. 1. Minutes shall be taken at all open meetings of a public body which shall consist of a record or summary of all motions, proposals, resolutions and any other matter formally voted upon and the vote thereon. 2. Minutes shall be taken at executive sessions of any…

§ 107. Enforcement. 1. Any aggrieved person shall have standing to enforce the provisions of this article against a public body by the commencement of a proceeding pursuant to article seventy-eight of the civil practice law and rules, or an action for declaratory judgment and in…

§ 108. Exemptions. Nothing contained in this article shall be construed as extending the provisions hereof to: 1. judicial or quasi-judicial proceedings, except proceedings of the public service commission and zoning boards of appeals; 2. a. deliberations of political committees…

§ 109. Committee on open government. The committee on open government, created by paragraph (a) of subdivision one of section eighty-nine of this chapter, shall issue advisory opinions from time to time as, in its discretion, may be required to inform public bodies and persons o…

§ 11. Official undertakings. 1. Every official undertaking, when required by or in pursuance of law to be hereafter executed or filed by any officer, shall be to the effect that he will faithfully discharge the duties of his office and promptly account for and pay over all money…

§ 110. Construction with other laws. 1. Any provision of a charter, administrative code, local law, ordinance, or rule or regulation affecting a public body which is more restrictive with respect to public access than this article shall be deemed superseded hereby to the extent …

§ 111. Severability. If any provision of this article or the application thereof to any person or circumstances is adjudged invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, such judgment shall not affect or impair the validity of the other provisions of the article or the applicati…

§ 115. Application of chapter. This chapter applies to civil officers only.

§ 116. Laws repealed. Of the laws enumerated in the schedule hereto annexed, that portion specified in the last column is hereby repealed.

§ 117. When to take effect. This chapter shall take effect immediately.

§ 12. Force and effect of official undertaking. An officer of whom an official undertaking is required, shall not receive any money or property as such officer, or do any act affecting the disposition of any money or property which such officer is entitled to receive or have the…

§ 13. Notice of neglect to file oath or undertaking. The officer or body making the appointment or certificate of election of a public officer shall, if the officer be required to give an official undertaking to be filed in an office other than that in which the written appointm…

§ 14. Effect of consolidation on terms of office. If an office be continued by the consolidated laws constituting the consolidation of which this chapter is a part, the person lawfully holding such office at the time of the taking effect of such consolidated laws shall, subject …

§ 15. Validation of official acts performed before filing official oath or undertaking. If a public officer, duly chosen, has heretofore entered, or shall hereafter enter on the performance of the duties of his or her office, without taking or filing an official oath, or executi…

§ 16. Qualifications of certain judicial officers in cities of the first class. A person shall be eligible for appointment to the office of magistrate, judge or justice of an inferior court of criminal jurisdiction in a city of the first class, who shall at the time of such appo…

§ 17. Defense and indemnification of state officers and employees. 1. (a) As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires the term "employee" shall mean any person holding a position by election, appointment or employment in the service of the state, including cli…

§ 17-a. Reimbursement of funds paid by state agencies and state entities for the payment of awards adjudicated in sexual harassment claims. 1. As used in this section, the term "employee" shall mean any person holding a position by election, appointment, or employment in the ser…

§ 18. Defense and indemnification of officers and employees of public entities. 1. As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires: (a) The term "public entity" shall mean (i) a county, city, town, village or any other political subdivision or civil division of th…

§ 18-a. Reimbursement of funds paid by a public entity for the payment of awards adjudicated in sexual harassment claims. 1. As used in this section: (a) The term "public entity" shall mean (i) a county, city, town, village or any other political subdivision or civil division of…

§ 19. Reimbursement of defense costs incurred by or on behalf of state employees. 1. (a) As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires, the term "employee" shall mean any person holding a position by election, appointment or employment in the service of the stat…

§ 2. Definitions. The term "state officer" includes every officer for whom all the electors of the state are entitled to vote, members of the legislature, justices of the supreme court, regents of the university, and every officer, appointed by one or more state officers, or by …

§ 20. Action upon official bond or undertaking. Where a public officer is required to give an official bond or undertaking, and special provision is not made by law for the prosecution of the bond or undertaking, by or for the benefit of a person who has sustained by his default…

§ 21. Application may be made ex parte. Such application may be made without notice; but in that case the officer, or either of his sureties, may apply upon notice, to vacate an order permitting the applicant to maintain an action, upon any ground showing that it ought not to ha…

§ 22. Proof to accompany application. The application must be accompanied with 1. A certified copy of the official bond or undertaking; 2. Proof by affidavit of the default or misconduct complained of, and that satisfaction of the same has not been received. 3. If the default co…

§ 23. Order granting leave; action thereupon. Upon such an application, the court must grant an order, permitting the applicant to maintain an action upon the bond or undertaking. The action must be brought, in the court which granted the order, by the applicant as plaintiff; an…

§ 24. Successive actions. The same, or any other applicant, may, in like manner, either before or after judgment in the first action, obtain an order, permitting him to maintain another action, in the same court, upon the same bond or undertaking, for another default or miscondu…

§ 25. Indorsement upon execution. Where an execution is issued upon a judgment, recovered against the public officer and any of his sureties, in an action, brought pursuant to this article, the plaintiff's attorney must indorse thereon a direction to collect the same, in the fir…

§ 26. Collection of execution; when a defence to subsequent action. It is a defence by a surety, against whom an action is brought upon an official bond or undertaking, that he, or any other surety or sureties, have been or will be compelled, for want of sufficient property of t…

§ 27. When claimants entitled to ratable distribution. If the aggregate amount of the liabilities, which might be recovered by actions upon an official bond or undertaking, as prescribed in this article, exceeds the sum for which the sureties are liable, the court must, upon the…

§ 28. Receivers, assignees and trustees deemed public officers. A receiver, an assignee of an insolvent debtor, or a trustee or other officer, appointed by a court or a judge, is a public officer, within the meaning of this article; but where he was appointed by or pursuant to t…

§ 3. Qualifications for holding office. 1. No person shall be capable of holding a civil office who shall not, at the time he or she shall be chosen thereto, have attained the age of eighteen years, except that in the case of youth boards, youth commissions, recreation commissio…

§ 3-a. Restrictions upon holding public office or employment of persons removed from office for certain reasons. Any public officer who, upon being called before a grand jury to testify concerning the conduct of his office or the performance of his official duties, refuses to si…

§ 3-b. Special peace officers to be citizens; other residency requirements. 1. No sheriff of a county, mayor of a city, or official, or other persons authorized by law to appoint special deputy sheriffs, special constables, marshals, police officers, or peace officers in this st…

§ 3-c. Restrictions upon nomination or election to compensated federal, state or local office. 1. For purposes of this section, "candidate" has the meaning set forth in section 14-100 of the election law. 2. No commissioner, executive director or other head of any state agency, …

§ 30. Creation of vacancies. 1. Every office shall be vacant upon the happening of one of the following events before the expiration of the term thereof: a. The death of the incumbent; b. His resignation; c. His removal from office; d. His ceasing to be an inhabitant of the stat…

§ 31. Resignations. 1. Public officers may resign their offices as follows: a. The governor, lieutenant-governor, comptroller and attorney-general, to the legislature; b. All officers appointed by the governor alone, or by him with the consent of the senate, to the governor; c. …

§ 32. Removals by senate. The governor before making a recommendation to the senate for the removal of any officer may in his discretion take proofs, for the purpose of determining whether such recommendation shall be made. The comptroller or attorney-general may be removed by t…

§ 33. Removals by governor. 1. An officer appointed by the governor for a full term or to fill a vacancy, whose appointment is not required by law to be made by and with the advice and consent of the senate, any county treasurer, any county superintendent of the poor, any regist…

§ 33-a. Removal of heads of departments. Any officer who is, or any or either of the officers who are, the head of a department, if appointed by the governor by and with the advice and consent of the senate, may be removed from office by the governor whenever in his judgment the…

§ 34. Proceedings for removal by governor. 1. In any proceeding for the removal by the governor of a public officer, he may conduct an investigation into the charges, and may take the evidence as to the truth of the charges at a hearing for such purpose, or he may direct that su…

§ 35. Removals from office. Every removal of an officer by one or more state officers, shall be in written duplicate orders, signed by the officer, or by all or a majority of the officers, making the removal, or if made by a body or board of state officers may be evidenced by du…