Appeal from a judgment (denominated order) of the Supreme Court, Erie County (Thomas E Franczyk, A.J.), entered April 15, 2008 in a proceeding pursuant to CFLR article 78. The judgment, insofar as appealed from, directed respondent to provide certain documents to petitioner pursuant to the Freedom of Information Law.
It is hereby ordered that the judgment insofar as appealed from is unanimously reversed on the law without costs and the petition is dismissed.
Memorandum: Eetitioner commenced this CPLR article 78 proceeding seeking, inter alia, to compel respondent, the executive director of Saving Grace Ministries, Inc. (SGM), to provide certain documents pursuant to the Freedom of Information Law ([FOIL] Public Officers Law art 6). SGM owns and operates various residences for men who were previously incarcerated, and it has contracts with the New York State Division of Parole (DOP) to receive parolees upon their release from incarceration on a fee-for-service basis. We agree with respondent that Supreme Court erred in determining that SGM is an agency within the meaning of Public Officers Law § 86 (3) and thus is subject to FOIL requirements.
Pursuant to FOIL, the term 11 £[a]gency’ means any state or municipal department, board, bureau, division, commission, committee, public authority, public corporation, council, office
Here, it is undisputed that the DOP and other state agencies do not maintain any authority or control over SGM’s budget, that SGM retains exclusive control over hiring and firing employees, and that SGM does not occupy public offices or space. Rather, SGM is an independent entity supported in part by private donations and formed for the purpose of promoting Christian principles to men recently released from incarceration. We acknowledge that SGM works closely with the DOR that it exists solely to serve parolees, and that it performs the functions of the DOP and enforces the OOP’s rules. We nevertheless conclude that SGM does so as a private contractor, not as an agent of the DOP or any other governmental entity (see Ervin, 26 AD3d at 634-635). We therefore reverse the judgment insofar as appealed from and dismiss the petition.
Although not raised by the parties on appeal, we express our concern that, in deciding the issue before it, the court sua sponte relied on a source and its contents that were not submitted by either party. Specifically, the court accessed SGM’s Web site and relied heavily on information found therein. Indeed, the court quoted from the Web site to support its determination that SGM is an agency subject to disclosure pursuant to FOIL. “In conducting its own independent factual research, the court improperly went outside the record in order to arrive at its conclusions, and deprived the parties [of] an opportunity to respond to its factual findings” (NYC Med. & Neurodiagnostic,