A government openness advocacy organization recently came out with a Santa-style “Naughty and Nice” list.

The New York Coalition for Open Government, led by Williamsville lawyer Paul Wolf, has pushed its message to the sympathetic media all year.

No one from Chautauqua County made the list for 2022, though Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz was found to be “naughty” for his behavior in negotiations on a new Buffalo Bills stadium.

Poloncarz conducted the negotiations secretly and refused to update Erie County legislators on them. It took a successful lawsuit to get him to release an engineering study on the new stadium — and once released, 94% of it was redacted.

Another Western New Yorker on the “naughty” list was Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino. According to Wolf, he schedules about one special meeting a month, especially on big decisions, because the rules for notifying the public on special meetings are less stringent. He also requires questions for him to be submitted in advance.

The “naughty” list has some even more egregious behavior on it from outside Western New York.

¯ Henderson Town Supervisor Edwin Glaser declared, “As far as Henderson goes, nothing is going to change,” when the coalition noted that the town was not posting meeting documents and minutes online. He also said the coalition “does absolutely nothing.”

¯ The town of Malta stopped live-streaming its meetings after a summer board session got testy over a development project. The town took delivery of $70,000 worth of new equipment for live-streaming in September, but it still hasn’t resumed. Videos of old meetings were also removed from the town website.

¯ Valley Stream Mayor Edwin Fare demanded that a resident stop recording during a September village board meeting. Although the village attorney backed Fare, people have the right to record municipal meetings under the state’s Open Meetings Law.

The “nice” list included Niagara Falls councilmember Donta Myles, who has fought Restaino’s public speaking rules. It also singled out Parish Town Clerk Kelly Reader for promptly posting all agendas documents, minutes and recordings online.

Gubernatorial candidates Robert Astorino, Thomas Suozzi and Harry Wilson also made the “nice” list for participating in the Coalition for Open Government’s forum on open government issues. The Democratic nominee and eventual winner, Kathy Hochul, did not join that forum. Republican candidate Lee Zeldin also passed.

Although Chautauqua County wasn’t mentioned this time, the Coalition for Open Government did put the town of Hanover in its sights in 2022. The town was criticized for failing to post meeting documents and minutes on its website. Under the Open Meetings Law, municipalities are supposed to do so.