AVAILABLE RECORDS. The following series of records maintained by the Council on the Arts are available for public inspection and copying.

The list includes records series which fall within the catagories required to be released under section 88(1) of the Public Officers Law and certain other types of records as well.

Access to records within these series will be granted in accordance with the general procedures iotlined in the Council's Rules and Regulations on Availability of Records for Public Inspection and Copying.

In general the Council will strive to permit disclosure of as much of its records as possible, consistent with State interest. The Freedom of Infor-mation Act provides for non-disclosure of records under stated circumstances. Most of the activities of the Council are presently concerned with the funding of arts and cultural institutions throughout New York State in accordance with the Council's legislative mandate. Consistent with the Freedom of Information Law, the Council will make available all objective criteria considered by it in connection with its arts and cultural funding process. In order to promote an open, frank and full consideration of app-licants for funding, the Council has adopted a policy not to release matters relating to opinions, options and recommendations made by staff and consul-tants prior to adoptions of final funding positions and decisions on matters requiring Council action.

Under the above policy, the Council will make available applications for funding submitted by applicants and contracts with grantees. After annual funding is completed the identity of panel members who make recommendations to the staff and the Council may be released to the public. Beyond releasing this information the Council will not make available the following:

In general, audits conducted by the Council and reports on the activities of grant applicants following the award of a Council grant, primarily made for the purpose of determining whether a grant recipient has complied with the terms of the grant, will be made available to the public unless solicited in confidence.

In summary, it is the Council's policy to release as much information as possible. In individual instances, however, where, in addition to the above, it is felt that the release of information will constitue an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, the public access officer is given discretion to delete items of information from documents requested.