Government transparency advocates have a popular saying: \u201cInformation delayed is information denied.\u201d Zohran Mamdani\u2019s mayoral administration is now testing that proposition with a comprehensive policy of delay.<\/p>\n
Beginning this spring, the New York City Mayor\u2019s Office started assigning a roughly six-month response date to nearly every records request made under the state\u2019s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), without regard to the subject matter of any given request. The Manhattan Institute is asking a court to put an end to the practice.<\/p>\n
Finally, a reason to check your email.<\/p>\n
Sign up for our free newsletter today.<\/p>\n
Our lawsuit was triggered by a narrow request we made about Ana Maria Archila, commissioner of the Mayor\u2019s Office for International Affairs. In July, City Journal reported<\/a> that she would meet with Amir-Saeid Iravani, Iran\u2019s ambassador to the United Nations. The report said that Archila had not informed Mayor Mamdani about the meeting and that it had been canceled after the administration learned of it.<\/p>\n The incident prompted clear questions: What other meetings have been organized by Archila or have taken place without the mayor\u2019s knowledge? On July 9, we asked for a list of Archila\u2019s appointments with people outside of city government since January 1.<\/p>\n Our request was not a wide net cast over the last several years of correspondence between multiple agencies; rather, it sought information on scheduling records for just one official over six months. Besides, City Journal had already seen her invitation to the Iran meeting; we knew there was at least one responsive document.<\/p>\n Four days later, on July 13, the Mayor\u2019s Office notified us that we could expect the response around January 11, 2027. We immediately appealed this response as a refusal due to the unexplained six-month delay. On July 31, the Mayor\u2019s Office denied our appeal. It cited the time and effort sometimes needed to review voluminous amounts of documents. The office did not specify how many records there were and why they were so difficult to go through.<\/p>\n The New York State Legislature hasn\u2019t imposed an inflexible stopwatch on public record handling, but it does expect prompt disclosure. Under FOIL \u00a7 89(3)(a)<\/a>, an agency has five business days to disclose records, deny the request, or acknowledge receipt and provide an approximate response date that is reasonable under the circumstances. If an agency has records to disclose but circumstances prevent disclosure within 20 business days after acknowledgment, the agency must explain why in writing and provide a date certain within a reasonable period.<\/p>\n State regulations<\/a> direct officials to consider request-specific factors, including volume, complexity, retrieval difficulty, necessary review, and the agency\u2019s overall request load. The law allows additional time when justified. It does not create a universal six-month grace period.<\/p>\n