Public Records Search
FOIL Requests – Freedom of Information Law
The Town Clerk is the Records Management Officer for the Town of Ithaca. The Town is very open and transparent, and an official form is not necessary, but it is helpful sometimes.
A FOIL request form can be found on our OpenGov platform. Submitting a request through OpenGov allows you to track the status of your request and allows the Town Clerk to pull other departments into the search if necessary. You can also send an email to the Town Clerk or come in and verbally request records. Under FOIL, the Town Clerk/RMO has up to five days to respond to a request for records. If your request has not been acknowledged within 5 days, please call or email the Town Clerks Office to ensure it was received.
The Town is a member of the Tompkins County Shared Services Electronic Repository or TSSERR. This is a digital repository of town records available all day, everyday, at your convenience. LINK
For example, this is useful for people looking to buy a property. It allows you to search the status of the property, such as issued permits, variances or approvals.
Accessing TSSERR
The log in information should auto fill. If, not, please follow the directions to sign in if the fields do not auto-fill. The most important step is to select the Town of Ithaca Public repository.
Once on the site, you can search by broad topic or narrow down to particular boards or committees or even properties. If you have any issues, please feel free to contact the Town Clerk’s office for assistance.
As we build this repository out, we welcome suggestions.
The town of Ithaca follows the NYS Archives Retention Schedule, or the LGS-1, which applies certain retention schedules to particular record series. For example, audio recordings of boards and committees have a retention period of 4 months after the approval of the minutes of the meeting.
If you can’t find what you are looking for, or need assistance, you can always send a FOIL request to the Town Clerk, who will assist you.