The law is clear. When we request city records, you must provide them, completely and in a timely manner.
Margaret Sullivan: Mayor, stop stonewalling and release records
EDITOR
Mayor Brown, a simple expectation: Obey the law. Investigative reporter James Heaney filed requests months ago, under the state’s Freedom of Information Law, for city records that are unquestionably the rightful property of the people who elected you.
The law is clear. When we request city records, you must provide them, completely and in a timely manner.
But you aren’t exactly following the law at the moment.
You’re stonewalling. So, with all due respect, Mayor, cut it out. Because, in the immortal words of local actress/ diva Lorna Hill, describing her life philosophy, “We are prepared to insist.”
And to our readers, we add this:We will insist, because we need those records if we are to keep you fully informed about your government.
Many of the stories that News investigative reporters have done in recent months, particularly those related to city government, have depended heavily on public records.
As just one example, Heaney and Patrick Lakamp relied on such information in writing their expose of the city’s role in financing and managing One Sunset, a now-defunct Delaware Avenue restaurant owned by former pro basketball player Leonard Stokes.
The head of Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corp., the city agency that gave Stokes some dubious loans, has since been removed from his position there.
Meanwhile, the U. S. attorney’s office, the FBI’s Government Corruption Unit, the office of Special Counsel and the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development all have begun investigations into City Hall’s financial and political dealings. The State Police and Erie County district attorney, meanwhile, are investigating Ellicott Common Council Member Brian Davis, a Brown ally, as a result of a News investigation.
The stories and the subsequent investigations don’t reflect well on the mayor, who runs for re-election this fall. So it’s not hard to understand why the Brown administration doesn’t want to feed the watchdog.
But that doesn’t make it right. Or legal.
Nor is this an isolated incident. Susan Schulman, who heads The News’ investigative team, filed FOIL requests related to city-subsidized housing months ago and has received nothing. What’s more outrageous, she’s still waiting for information on the city-run animal shelter requested a year ago.
In the matter of Heaney’s request, the city is telling us that, for some records, we will have to wait a total of 70 business days. That’s 14 weeks, longer when you factor in holidays, or approximately three months.
In other words, the city expects to release some of the information one to two weeks after the mayoral primary in September.
Robert J. Freeman, the highly respected executive director of the state’s Committee on Open Government—appointed by six governors, one after another, for 35 years—says 70 days is a long time to wait for this kind of information, especially with no valid explanation.
“If the records are public and reasonably easy to find, there is no reason to delay disclosing them,” Freeman told me in a phone call last week.
But what recourse is there?
Well, he says, there’s the bureaucratic process of appealing what amounts to a denial of the request. Or, he said, “The other recourse is what you are doing.”
“You can tell the world and let the court of public opinion assert itself.”
That, readers, is where you come in. Do you want the mayor to deliver the information that is rightfully yours and to tell you, in effect, how your money is being spent and how your city is being run?
According to the mayor’s Web site (which, by the way, touts the city’s “accountability”), you can call his office at 851-4841 or write to him at City Hall, 65 Niagara Square, 14202. You can also e-mail him at MayorBrownWebMail@ch.ci.buffalo.ny.us . Just say, “Obey the law, Mayor.” He’ll get the message.
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