Brendan J. Lyons reports in the Albany Times-Union reports that the state Committee on Open Government cited a "corrosive lack of transparency" for a unanimous vote this week urging the governor and Legislature to repeal a 1976 statute preventing the public from access to the personnel records of police and correction officers. The 11-member Committee on Open Government, including appointees of the governor and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, complained that the systems has evolved to, "allow police departments to withhold from the public virtually any record that contains any information that could conceivably be used to evaluate the performance of a police officer." the committee's report states. The panel's report also says that New York courts have expanded the meaning of statute section 50-A of the Civil Rights Law to now include former police officers, even though the law limits the shielded materials to, "personnel records used to evaluate performance toward continued employment or promotion." Read the full story in the Albany Times-Union.