[HISTORY: Adopted by the Suffolk County Legislature as indicated
in article histories. Amendments noted where applicable.]
[Adopted 3-5-2013 by Res.
No. 111-2013]
A.
The Department of Labor, Licensing and Consumer Affairs is hereby
authorized, empowered and directed to promptly provide to consumers,
upon their request, the following information regarding any licensed
or unlicensed contractor, upon their request:
(1)
A description of all complaints registered against the subject contractor
in the preceding five years;
(2)
The number of violations issued by the Department to the subject
contractor in the preceding five years;
(3)
A description of the nature of said violations; and
(4)
An explanation of how each violation was resolved.
B.
The Department is further authorized and directed to provide to any
consumer requesting information regarding a contractor's violations
with the amount of any monetary penalties assessed against the contractor
and the extent to which those penalties were paid.
A.
The Department shall make a verbatim, stenographic record of each
administrative hearing it conducts unless the complainant and the
subject contractor agree to accept a tape recording of the hearing.
The Department is authorized to charge a consumer or contractor who
insists upon a verbatim, stenographic record a fee of up to $50 to
offset the cost of making such record.
B.
The Department is authorized and directed to provide a full transcript
of any hearing it conducts to a consumer upon his/her request, subject
to applicable fees under New York's Freedom of Information Law.
A.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, consumers are limited to information
requests for no more than three contractors every 90 days.
B.
This article shall not be construed to require the Department to
release information which is proprietary or personal in nature (i.e.,
a contractor's banking records, social security number, home
address or home phone number) or the internal documents and notes
produced by Department employees during the course of an investigation.
The Department of Information Technology is directed to work
in cooperation with the Department of Labor, Licensing and Consumer
Affairs to make the information subject to disclosure pursuant to
this article available on-line. To the extent information is made
available on-line, the Department's disclosure obligations under
this article will be satisfied.
Nothing contained within this article shall preclude or in any
way limit a citizen's right to obtain information from the Department
pursuant to New York Freedom of Information Law.