Lawsuit Challenges Mamdani’s Office for Taking Six Months To Answer Simple Questions

How long does it take to pull up a city official’s Outlook calendar? A new lawsuit filed by a conservative think tank this week accuses Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office of throwing its records request on a growing pile as City Hall assigns even simple questions wait times of six months. The lawsuit follows a Freedom of Information Law, or “FOIL,” request that researchers at the Manhattan Institute lodged in July after learning that Mr. Mamdani’s appointed Commissioner for International Affairs Ana María Archila had arranged to meet with Iran’s United Nations envoy Iran’s Amir-Saeid Iravani.The meeting was reportedly scheduled without the mayor’s knowledge and cancelled once he was made aware of it, prompting the organization to ask what else may have been on Ms. Archila’s agenda.“MI and the public have an interest in knowing what other meetings Archila may have scheduled or conducted without the mayor’s knowledge,” Manhattan Institute’s petition states.New York’s Freedom of Information Law requires government agencies to respond to records requests within five business days to either provide the records, deny the request, or identify a date by which it can reasonably answer the request. A 2005 amendment to the law requires agencies to explain the delay when they cannot provide records within 20 business days.The organization compared FOIL request data available through the city’s OpenRecords portal that it says paints a damning picture of what Mr. Mamdani once promised would be a “City Hall…defined by transparency.”Of the records requests lodged with the Mayor’s Office between May and July this year, a whopping 92.4 percent received projected response dates six months in the future, a figure Manhattan Institute policy analyst Santiago Vidal Calvo and attorney Cameron Macdonald compared with statistics from the tail end of the Adams administration. While Mr. Adams was no champion of open government, the pair found that between April and July 2025, just one FOIL request out of 104 his office received got the six-month treatment.“The law allows additional time when justified. It does not create a universal six-month grace period.” Mr. Macdonald and Mr. Calvo wrote in an article announcing the suit Tuesday.The think tank’s petition calls on the court to “enforce the law’s clear commands and compel the Mayor’s Office to disclose the records.”Questioned about the suit at a press conference Wednesday, the mayor told reporters: “Our law department is reviewing this lawsuit and we are fully committed to transparency and we are working to return FOIL requests in full accordance with the law.”The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to questions from The New York Sun nor provide an estimated response time.

Lawsuit Challenges Mamdani’s Office for Taking Six Months To Answer Simple Questions

Lawsuit Challenges Mamdani’s Office for Taking Six Months To Answer Simple Questions

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