New York Consolidated Laws, Public Service Law - PBS § 7. Organization and records;  minutes as evidence;  destruction of certain records

1. The commission shall have a secretary and assistant secretaries to be appointed by the chairman.  It shall be the duty of the secretary to keep a full and true record of all proceedings and a transcript of the public sessions of the commission.  The record of the proceedings of the commission shall be prima facie evidence of the proceedings of the commission.  The transcript of public sessions shall be made available in the Albany and New York city offices that the commission maintains.  The chairman shall have charge of the organization of its office, shall assign its employees to the several divisions or bureaus and shall superintend the performance of their duties.  The secretary and assistant secretary, each commissioner and each hearing officer or person designated to conduct an investigation may administer oaths in all parts of the state, so far as the exercise of such power is properly incidental to the performance of his duty or that of the commission.

2. Such records and general correspondence as are no longer necessary for the purposes of the commission may be destroyed upon the order of the commission;  but no such record, report or correspondence shall be destroyed until it shall have been on file for at least five years.

3. Any opinion issued by the commission in a formal commission proceeding shall include a record of the vote taken indicating the names of the commissioners who voted in favor and the names of the commissioners who voted against the opinion.  Any statement of dissent shall be attached to the majority's opinion.