§ 139-a. Special provisions to avoid abuse of assistance and care. 1.
Any person who shall apply for safety net assistance or family
assistance within one year after arrival in this state, shall be
presumed to have come into the state for the purpose of receiving public
assistance or care and the social services official where application is
made, shall deny public assistance and care to such applicant unless
such applicant shall establish by clear and convincing proof that the
purpose of his or her entry was not for the purpose of securing public
assistance and care in this state. In addition to complying with the
foregoing provisions, the applicant shall also submit with his or her
application a certificate from the appropriate local employment office
of the state department of labor issued within a two week period from
the date of his or her application stating that such employment office
has no order for an opening in part-time, full-time, temporary or
permanent work of any kind to which the applicant could properly be
referred by such office, taking into consideration only his or her
physical and mental capacity without reference to his or her customary
occupation or acquired skill.

2. The social services official shall in every case complete his
investigation and make his determination of the application under this
section not more than thirty days after receipt of the application.

3. (a) The social services districts of Allegany, Broome, Dutchess,
Niagara, Onondaga, Oneida, Orange, Oswego, Rensselaer, Rockland,
Steuben, and Suffolk shall authorize and implement demonstration
projects for the purposes of determining the cost-effectiveness of
preventing multiple enrollment of home relief benefit recipients through
the use of an automated two-digit finger imaging matching identification
system. The system shall only include home relief benefit recipient
finger imaging upon application for eligibility for such benefits and
finger imaging of home relief recipients currently receiving home relief
benefits.

(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of section one hundred thirty-six
of this article or any other provision of law, data collected and
maintained through the use of an automated finger imaging matching
identification system as authorized by this subdivision may not be used,
disclosed or redisclosed for any purpose other than the prevention of
multiple enrollments in home relief, may not be used or admitted in any
criminal or civil investigation, prosecution, or proceeding, other than
a civil proceeding pursuant to section one hundred forty-five-c of this
article, and may not be disclosed in response to a subpoena or other
compulsory legal process or warrant, or upon request or order of any
agency, authority, division, office or other private or public entity or
person, except that nothing contained herein shall prohibit disclosure
in response to a subpoena issued by or on behalf of the applicant or
recipient who is the subject of the record maintained as a part of such
system. Any person who knowingly makes or obtains any unauthorized
disclosure of data collected and maintained through the use of an
automated two-digit finger imaging matching identification system shall
be guilty of a class A misdemeanor, and shall be punished in accordance
with the provisions of the penal law.

(c) Data collected and maintained on the automated two-digit finger
imaging matching identification system shall be subject to those
provisions relating to unauthorized disclosure of confidential client
information currently subject to part 357 of the commissioner's
regulations.

(d) Such social services districts shall develop a competitive request
for proposal for an automated two-digit finger imaging matching
identification system, and shall thereafter contract for the services of
a firm certified by the department as able to design and implement such
automated two-digit finger imaging matching identification system. The
department shall oversee the process by which districts select and award
contracts for the demonstration projects. Prior to the implementation of
any contracts, the department shall certify that a system exists for
data collection and for destroying and expunging a recipient finger
image upon such recipient ceasing to be a home relief recipient and that
the design of the demonstration project fulfills all the requirements of
this section. The department shall provide such assistance as needed to
facilitate finger image matching among social services districts
including centralized sharing of data when local matching among social
services districts is not feasible. After award the department shall be
responsible for ensuring that the demonstration projects are carried out
in accordance with the requirements of this section, that adequate
training for local district staff involved with the project will be
provided and taking any actions necessary to bring such programs into
compliance if required. Such contractual arrangement shall ensure that
state payments for the contractor's necessary and legitimate expenses
for the administration of such program are limited to amounts specified
in advance and that such amounts shall not exceed the amount
appropriated therefor in any fiscal years.

(e) Immediate notice of all the provisions of this subdivision shall
be provided to home relief recipients or applicants.

(f) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, nothing contained
herein shall be deemed to authorize or permit the termination,
suspension, or diminution of home relief benefits except as elsewhere
specifically authorized in this chapter, provided, however, that where
the basis of a proposed sanction is a determination of a fraudulent
multiple enrollment based on the use of an automated finger imaging
matching identification system authorized pursuant to this section, no
such sanction shall be imposed pending a hearing conducted pursuant to
section twenty-two of this chapter within forty-five days of the
notification of the applicant or recipient of the alleged fraudulent
multiple enrollment, or pending a final determination of a request by an
applicant or a recipient for correction or amendment of a record
pursuant to section ninety-five of the public officers law, and no such
sanction shall be imposed unless the local social services district has
verified the results of the automated finger imaging matching
identification system by means of a manual match conducted by a person
who is qualified to perform such identifications.

(g) The department shall conduct periodic audits to monitor compliance
with all laws and regulations regarding the automated finger imaging
matching system to insure that any records maintained as part of such
system are accurate and complete, that no illegal disclosures of such
records have taken place, that effective software and hardware designs
have been instituted with security features to prevent unauthorized
access to such records, that access to record information system
facilities, systems operating environments, data file contents whether
while in use or when stored in a media library is restricted to
authorized personnel only, that operation programs are used that will
prohibit inquiry, record updates, or destruction of records, from any
terminal other than automated finger imaging matching system terminals
which are so designated, that operational programs are used to detect
and store for the output of designated department employees all
unauthorized attempts to penetrate any automated finger imaging matching
system, program or file, that adequate and timely procedures exist to
insure that the recipient or applicant's right to access and review of
records for the purpose of accuracy and completeness, including
procedures for review of information maintained about such individuals
and for administrative review (including procedures for administrative
appeal) and necessary correction of any claim by the individual to whom
the information relates that the information is inaccurate or
incomplete.

(h) The department shall report to the speaker of the assembly and the
temporary president of the senate on the operation of the demonstration
project by March first, nineteen hundred ninety-six. This report shall
include analysis of the cost-effectiveness of such project, and shall
include information concerning instances of multiple enrollment detected
through use of this system, and shall include a detailed summary of the
results of audits required by paragraph (g) of this subdivision. The
report shall include recommendations regarding whether the program
should be discontinued, expanded, or otherwise modified.

(i) The department of social services shall contract with an
independent academic or research organization (the "contractor")
experienced in evaluating public assistance programs for a comprehensive
evaluation of the automated finger imaging matching identification
system authorized in this section. The results of such evaluation shall
be set forth in a report which shall include, but not be limited to the
following:

(1) a description of the demonstration project, its implementation
schedule and the problems encountered in implementation;

(2) investigations of each instance where a recipient does not respond
to a notice informing the recipient of the need to submit to finger
imaging. Such investigation shall determine, to the extent possible, why
the recipient did not respond and whether such failure to respond was
due to the recipient: (a) becoming eligible for federal supplemental
security income benefits, if any; (b) no longer being eligible because
of earned income, if any; (c) no longer being a resident of the county,
if any; or (d) failing to respond because of other reasons;

(3) an evaluation of historical caseload trends, both statewide and in
the demonstration counties, including a study of monthly records for the
two years prior to the demonstration, and also including the closing of
cases at recertification. Analysis of such monthly records shall be
conducted as part of the basis of estimating benefits under the
demonstration;

(4) an analysis of the procedures used to verify suspicions of fraud
including follow-up of identified cases of fraud, if any;

(5) aggregate totals of false matches, if any, found by the system,
the methods used to correct such errors and an accounting of the
duplicate applications for benefits, if any, that are detected by the
system; and

(6) an estimate of the savings, if any, resulting from the
implementation of finger imaging, and an estimate of the actual costs of
the system including, but not limited to equipment costs, the costs of
linking terminals, site preparation and the costs of any additional
staff required to operate the system.

(j) Not later than February first, nineteen hundred ninety-six, the
contractor shall submit the report required by paragraph (i) of
subdivision three of this section to the governor, the majority leader
of the senate and the speaker of the assembly and to the commissioner of
the department of social services.

(k) The local social service districts establishing an automated
finger imaging matching identification system pursuant to this
subdivision shall be deemed an agency as defined in subdivision one of
section ninety-two of the public officers law, and data collected and
maintained in such automated system shall be deemed records and systems
of records as defined in subdivisions nine and eleven of such section of
such law. Except as otherwise specifically provided in this section, the
provisions of article six-a of such law, known as the "personal privacy
protection law" shall apply to the records and systems of records
collected and maintained by such local social service districts pursuant
to this section.

(l) Expenditures made by social services districts, and determined
cost effective by the department, including those expenditures necessary
for contracts planned or executed on or before the effective date of
this section, for the design, development, implementation and
administrative costs of the automated finger imaging matching
identification system shall be subject to one hundred percent state
reimbursement.

(m) The automated finger imaging matching identification system shall
be established in the selected districts not later than October first,
nineteen hundred ninety-four, and such demonstration projects shall
expire upon the enactment of a chapter of the laws of nineteen hundred
ninety-five providing for an automated fraud prevention system based on
personally unique identification factors.