(Sept. 17, 2026 \/ JNS)\n <\/p>\n
The Manhattan Institute sued the administration of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani in New York State Supreme Court on Sept. 14 and asked the court to force City Hall to release documents that the think tank said it sought under the state\u2019s Freedom of Information Law.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit stems from requests in which two staff members at the think tank sought information<\/a> about an attempt by Ana Mar\u00eda Archila, commissioner of the Mayor\u2019s Office for International Affairs, to schedule a meeting<\/a> with the Iranian envoy to the United Nations. The meeting was scrapped after pressure from the U.S. State Department.<\/p>\n Santiago Vidal Calvo, a cities policy analyst at the think tank, and a colleague allege that they asked the mayor\u2019s office for calendar and other documents under the state FOIL law on July 9.<\/p>\n The two say the city told them it would respond six months later, in January 2027. The state law requires public agencies to reply within 20 working days.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mayor\u2019s office tries to appear transparent. They started a crusade of transparency, but it is hard to keep tabs on what they are doing in practice,\u201d Vidal Calvo told JNS.<\/p>\n During his mayoral campaign, Mamdani promised government transparency. He created a Commission on Government Efficiency, which held public hearings in each of New York\u2019s five boroughs. He also released a trove of documents about Sept. 11 shortly before the 25th anniversary of the terror attack.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople fall for the theatrics of it,\u201d Vidal Castro told JNS. \u201cOn the most basic law, they\u2019re being overly secretive about it. If the mayor\u2019s office wanted to, it could expand the FOIL office to be the most responsive in the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt looks bad from the public\u2019s perspective that City Hall has a policy like this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The FOIL request he and his colleague submitted should have been easy for City Hall to fulfill, since it asked for scheduled appointments during a defined period for a single official, according to Vidal Castro.<\/p>\n His and his colleague\u2019s lawsuit is the latest of several similar attempts to force City Hall to release information about issues of concern to Jewish New Yorkers under state law.<\/p>\n In June, Randy Mastro, a former first deputy New York City mayor, and veteran investigative journalist Richard Behar sued<\/a> Mamdani for what they say is his administration\u2019s failure to turn over records about his rollback on his first day on the job of several of his predecessor\u2019s executive orders on Jew-hatred and Israel.<\/p>\n