Despite early promises of transparency, Hochul has dragged her feet in releasing her detailed public schedules

Upon taking office five years ago, Gov. Kathy Hochul promised an unprecedented era of transparency. That hasn’t led to speedier schedule releases in recent years. 

Her office last week released a tranche of nine months worth of detailed public schedules, offering further insight into who she has met with and what she did during that period of time. But the schedules only go through June 2025, making even the most recently released ones about 14 months out of date. On top of that, they exclude details on hundreds of campaign-related events and calls, which they deem “private.”

The detailed public schedules contain far more information on who the governor has met with in her official capacity than what her office may be willing to advise in the moment. That includes meetings closed to the press, such as a recent sit-down with New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch that Hochul didn’t advise. Such a meeting would likely make it into the documents posted by the governor’s office after the fact – you may just need to wait months or even a year to get your hands on it.

At the beginning of her tenure, Hochul’s office had committed to releasing those documents about once a quarter. Until last week, the website with the governor’s past schedules were nearly two full years out of date. Hochul’s office last released three months of schedules in January this year, which only went through September 2024. Prior to that, Hochul went roughly a year without releasing any detailed public schedules. 

Sprinkled throughout the months-old and months-late public schedules are also over 400 “private events” that contain no information on who Hochul was calling or meeting with. Of the new nine-month batch of schedules, she had the most in October 2024, where she had 81 such “private events.” Typically, they indicate nongovernmental campaign or fundraising action by the governor, including calls to prospective donors and more elaborate fundraising events. Some days had back-to-back “private events” lasting no more than 15 minutes.

Rachael Fauss, senior policy adviser at Reinvent Albany, said the Hochul administration hasn’t exactly been making good on her early tenure promise of transparency. “I think these are the types of things that lapse. … It just either lapses or the politics get such that they decide to wait on releasing them,” she said. “It should just be a routine thing, because it would save everybody a lot of time, and it’s of interest because people want to know who the governor is meeting with.” 

Fauss also noted that the Hochul administration’s Freedom of Information Law process is just as burdensome and time consuming as it was when the governor first took office, requiring filers to send paper appeals if their requests are denied after months of delays. “The later a record is, the less relevant it is,” she said, both of FOIL delays and the age of the schedules being released now. “At a certain point, it defeats the whole purpose of the request. When you get the record, it's no longer relevant.”

When Hochul last released a small batch of schedules in January, New York Focus reported that the governor’s office routinely declined to release her far more detailed Outlook calendars, which would contain more information about those “private events” censored on the government schedules. Hochul’s office also has rejected FOIL requests for even the more basic public schedules in the past, citing the fact they would (eventually) post those online. 

For example, the response to a FOIL request filed by City & State in November 2023 for detailed public schedules between Oct. 15 and Nov. 8 was to “consult the (public schedule) website periodically, as updated calendars become available.” At the time of the response, in February 2024, the website only had schedules through September 2023.

In a statement, Hochul spokesperson Jen Goodman did not offer an explanation for the delays in releasing the detailed public schedules, nor on why the administration deviated from  releasing the documents on a quarterly basis. She also did not address the “private events” redacted on the schedules. “The Administration engages in a rigorous process to ensure an accurate record of the Governor’s calendar is available to the public,” she said in a statement. “We have released nine months of records in recent weeks and remain committed to improving transparency and accountability across state government.”