Freedom of Information Legislation
What's Doctoroff Saying to City? It's a Secret
Ever since he left the city for Bloomberg LP in January, there's a fair bit of chatter among government and real estate types about former Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff's continued role in the Bloomberg administration—just how much does he say to current city officials, and what is he saying?
The answer to those questions, it turns out, is not public information.
Back in May, we did a Freedom of Information request that normally allows the public access to e-mails and other correspondence between public officials and outside parties. But now the city's counsel has denied our FOIL request, saying that every e-mail we requested (between Mr. read more »
For the Record: Andrew Cuomo Doesn't Keep a Schedule
Unlike most public officials, New York’s hard-charging attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, doesn't keep a written daily schedule.
That's according to his office, which, after two separate Freedom of Information requests from The Observer, finally said that Mr. Cuomo simply didn’t have any pre-existing documentation of his day-to-day professional and political activities that he could make public.
It's the nature of his job, an aide explained.
"The vast majority of the attorney general's time each day is spent working on and being briefed on our cases and investigations," said Benjamin Lawsky, a special assistant and deputy counsel to Mr. Cuomo.
Mr. Cuomo’s office eventually did provide a reconstituted outline of his public schedule between January 2007, when he took office, and April 2008. It is five pages long, listing press conferences, public outings and political events. They said it includes everything of a nonsensitive nature. read more »
