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A WARNING LETTER ISSUED TO THE NYC MAYOR BY THE NYC CONFLICTS OF INTEREST BOARD MUST BE RELEASED PURSUANT TO A FOIL REQUEST BY THE NEW YORK TIMES (FIRST DEPT).

The First Department, in a full-fledged opinion by Justice Acosta, determined that a warning letter issued to the NYC mayor by the Conflicts of Interest Board (Board) must be released pursuant to a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request:

At issue in this appeal is whether a “private” warning letter issued to the Mayor of the City of New York by the Conflicts of Interest Board (Board) is subject to disclosure pursuant to the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). The City of New York office of the Mayor (Mayor’s Office) declined to disclose the letter to the New York Times (NYT) on the ground that the letter was exempt pursuant to New York City Charter § 2603(k), which states that “the records, reports, memoranda and files of the board shall be confidential and shall not be subject to public scrutiny.” The Mayor’s Office argues that since the letter was designated as “private” by the Board, and therefore confidential, it falls within the ambit of § 2603(k). We disagree. As the plain text of section 2603(k) indicates, it is meant to protect the confidentiality of documents in possession of the Board. Once the letter was issued to another entity, the Mayor could not rely on section 2603(k), because the NYT sought disclosure from the Mayor and not from the Board … . The Mayor’s Office’s privacy arguments are also inconsistent with the public interest in disclosure of warning letters, contrary to its own past practice of disclosing the Board’s correspondence, and otherwise have no merit. Accordingly, the letter must be disclosed. * * *

DOI [NYC Department of Investigations] found that the Mayor’s Office solicited contributions for CONY [Campaign for One New York] from executives of real estate development firms that likely had or potentially had business pending before the City. Although there was no finding of any quid pro quo, on several occasions, a firm achieved a favorable outcome from a City agency after it had made a donation to CONY … . These findings were transmitted to the Board, whose Chairman declined “for confidentiality reasons,” to tell a reporter whether the Board had issued a private warning letter, the only action available … . …

The NYT reporter to whom the Board chairman had spoken then filed a FOIL request with the Mayor’s Office for “a copy of a letter” sent by the Board to the Mayor’s Office regarding his fundraising for [CONY].” The request was denied on the ground that “the class of records you have requested would be exempt from disclosure pursuant to New York City Charter § 2603(k).” Matter of New York Times Co. v City of New York Off. of the Mayor, 2021 NY Slip Op 01948, First Dept 3-30-21

 

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