What Do You Do When No One Replies To Your FOIL Request?

The answer is easy. All you need to do is copy and paste the email in today's article and send it to the clowns trying to deny you access to information you're entitled to as a taxpayer.

I’ve been tracking claims of sexual harassment and other improper behavior by the Town of Monroe Highway Supervisor, James “Pat” Patterson.

Monroe Town Supervisor, Tony Cardone, and 2024 State Senate Candidate Dorey Houle, are alleged to have assisted Mr. Patterson in covering up those claims.

This investigation took me to the Village of Highland Falls, where I submitted a FOIL request on March 26th, 2024, at just after 9am.

Two hours after receiving my request, the Village Clerk wrote me back to confirm receipt, and they said, “By law, the Village has twenty business days in which to provide the documents requested with any associated costs or explain why the request is denied. I will be back in touch with you on or before, Tuesday, April 23, 2024.”

On April 22nd, I received the documents I requested.

That is how a FOIL request is supposed to work. You make a request. The government gets back to you to acknowledge receipt of your request. And then, the government tells you how long it’ll be to either get you what you asked for or tell you why you can’t have it.

But that’s not how things go in the Town of Monroe or the Village of South Blooming Grove.

So today, we’re going to follow-up on my original post about how to FOIL, and look at what your options are when the local government decides not to reply at all.

In March of 2004, at his old job over at the Village of Highland Falls, Mr. James “Pat” Patterson was suspended without pay for two weeks. It’s not clear from the documentation provided about the 2004 incident what James Patterson did to get suspended.

But in October of 2006, just two years later, Mr. Patterson was suspended again by the Village for two weeks without pay.

And in the case of the 2006 incident, we know why: Because Mr. Patterson had filled a Highland Falls highway department co-worker’s work glove with grease. Patterson claimed this was a practical joke, but a letter from the Mayor of Highland Falls indicates that nobody was laughing.

Whether or not Supervisor Cardone and other members of the Monroe Town Board, including 2024 State Senate Candidate Dorey Houle, knew about Patterson’s two suspensions prior to his appointment are not clear at this time.

Mr. Cardone famously lies (we’ll get to another recent example in a second) and Mrs. Houle does not respond to questions submitted to her official Town email.

As part of my investigation into Mr. Patterson, I sent more than one FOIL to the Town of Monroe about it. The most recent one, sent on Tuesday, April 16th, 2024, at 9:41am was never acknowledged by the Town Clerk, Valerie Bitzer.

The Town of Monroe does try to push people to using their online portal for FOIL submissions; however, that does not prevent them from accepting FOIL requests submitted in other ways. The trouble with the online portal is that it has a character limit, which prohibits residents from using the legal language in their FOIL that’s suggested by the NYC ACLU’s FOIL Toolkit.

So, even if the Town WANTS you to use their online submission form, you DO NOT HAVE TO USE IT.

This is one of the many ways the Town of Monroe has tried to manipulate the FOIL process.

More Monroe FOIL Shenanigans

Over the past three (or four) Town of Monroe Board meetings, you may have heard Supervisor Cardone ask Councilwoman Richardson if she emailed the IBEW. Mr. Cardone claimed that this email may subject the Town to a PERB violation.

This isn’t true in any way, shape, or form. So, once again, the Supervisor has lied to residents of the Town of Monroe, and he’s done so during a Town Board meeting that’s recorded, so everyone can see it.

The only people who can file a Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) violation are members of a union who are looking to file a grievance, according to PERB Chairwoman, Sandra Koslow, whom I spoke with for this story.

I shared Mr. Cardone’s actions against William Brown Jr. with Mrs. Koslow. She told me that In the case of the situation between James Patterson, Supervisor Cardone, and William Brown Jr. (who’s story I documented here), only Mr. Brown Jr. can file a PERB claim against Supervisor Cardone and the Town of Monroe. This is because the suggested removal of Brown Jr.’s Deputy Highway Superintendent Role as part of the IBEW contract negotiation with the Town was done as a retaliatory action by the Supervisor. And, as far as the public knows, this retaliatory action was a requirement for the IBEW to get the contract they wanted from the Town of Monroe.

Councilwoman Richardson’s actions, done after the negotiating window was closed and more or less an inquiry for guidance by the IBEW concerning the removal of William Brown Jr.’s role, does not, in any way shape or form, rise to the same level of violating New York State law that Mr. Cardone’s retaliatory actions against William Brown Jr. does.

In fact, her email is essentially a non-issue that Supervisor Cardone has spent the last three (or four) Town Board meetings ranting about. Most likely to deflect from the laws he definitely violated by retaliating against Mr. Brown using a union contract negotiation to do so.

But the manipulation of the FOIL law by Supervisor Cardone should not escape without mention here.

Since the illegal 90 Day Blanket Foil policy was announced, no FOIL submission processed by the Clerk’s office from The Monroe Gazette has been filled. All citing claims that the request for records (including Mr. Cardone’s personal emails and texts concerning Willam Brown Jr.) were too broad and did not identify a date range. This is, like Cardone’s public statements about Richardson, another falsehood.

However, Mr. Cardone’s own personal FOIL request for Councilwoman Richardson’s personal texts and emails concerning the IBEW was immediately fulfilled by Town Clerk, Valerie Bitzer. Mr. Cardone also had the Town Attorney insist to Councilwoman Richardson that she turn over these personal communications to be reviewed by the Clerk.

It is true that you can request personal emails and texts, sent from a government official’s personal device, as long as those messages were sent concerning Town Business. But as the Town of Monroe has tried to suggest to The Monroe Gazette, and unlike their actions with Councilwoman Richardson, these have to be narrow and specific requests, otherwise they don’t have to comply with the FOIL.

We’ll return to the Town of Monroe in just a moment.

South Blooming Grove FOIL Shenanigans

This one is a bit easier to explain than what’s going on in Monroe. The Village Clerk in South Blooming Grove (more or less) ignores FOIL requests. Period. Full stop.

After News 12’s recent coverage of what’s happening in South Blooming Grove, there’s been more responsiveness on the part of the Clerk, but even then, FOILs that go acknowledged then go unanswered or unfulfilled.

For example: I received six responses from Village Clerk of South Blooming Grove, Kerry Dougherty, an hour after the News 12 story ran concerning warnings received by the Village from Orange County’s Department of Health.

I mention this because, to me anyway, it’s hilarious that the Village of South Blooming Grove — Where the Village government has been hijacked by a hate group, and is actively ignoring numerous warnings concerning the water crisis — is better than the Town of Monroe in dealing with FOIL requests.

The Town of Monroe is clearly just straight up lying to the public, breaking the FOIL law, and manipulating it for when it suits their political purposes.

The Village of South Blooming Grove just ignores you.

Let’s be clear: Both instances are bad.

But.

You’d expect the Village of South Blooming Grove to be breaking and manipulating the FOIL law and not the Town of Monroe.

This goes to show you that it corruption and pettiness is not something limited to members of hanhallah.

I want to stress this point, because often times coverage from The Monroe Gazette is met on Facebook with comments like, “THEY don’t care.” “THEY break the law!”

Supervisor Cardone and Town Clerk Bitzer’s actions in Monroe disprove these claims.

We have multiple parties breaking the law in Orange County. It’s not a behavior limited to Haredi members of the Satmar religious sect.

So, What Can You Do?

Let’s revisit the Town of Monroe FOIL I sent concerning James “Pat” Patterson at the Highway Department. I submitted this FOIL on April 16th, 2024, at 9:41am. Unlike with Highland Falls (or as another comparison, the Village of Monroe), this FOIL request submitted to Town Clerk Valerie Bitzer did not receive any sort of response.

This is a violation of New York State’s FOIL law, which states that any municipal entity (essentially) in receipt of a FOIL request must respond to that FOIL request within 5 days. They don’t have to fulfill the request in five days. They just have to acknowledge they received it. Then, they have to tell you how long it will take for them to get a response.

Here is the FOIL I sent:

Dear Valerie,

The Monroe Gazette (“Gazette”) submits this request for records pursuant to the New York Freedom of Information Law, N.Y. Pub. Off. Law § 85, et seq., for access to and copies of the records collected by Monroe Town Supervisor, Tony Cardone (“the Supervisor”) and the following: Monroe Highway Superintendent, James “Pat” Patterson, Councilwoman Dorey Houle, and Monroe Town Attorney, Brian Nugent (herein collectively referred to as “the parties”) on their professional and personal devices (phones, tablets, ect.) and professional and personal email addresses regarding the requests as described below involving town business. As mentioned by the Department of State in a December 2013 notice, “Business related emails, therefore, whether they are sent via a private email account or an agency email account, are “records,” the contents of which would determine rights of access under FOIL”

Due to character limitations on the Town of Monroe FOIL form, this letter is sent to you as both an email and .pdf. Please write back and confirm receipt.

Please also note that, according to the New York State Committee on Open Government, you have 5 days to respond to this email, not 90. 

1. All emails, text messages, and other communications sent from “the parties” and “the Supervisor” on personal and professional devices, as defined above that include information about:

(a) Discussions between the parties (Cardone, Houle, Patterson, Nugent) concerning Human Resources complaint filed with the Town of Monroe against James Patterson between the dates of 1/1/22-1/1/24

(b) Copy of Human Resources complaints filed against Mr. James Patterson with the Town of Monroe between 1/1/22-1/1/24

To the extent that records are available in electronic format (ideally in a .pdf), we request that they be provided in that format. If any records are unavailable within five business days of receipt of the request, and responsive records exist, we seek a description of such records and a timeline of when access to the records will be provided. 

I am also making you aware, in advance, that there is an exemption to the intra-agency communications rule that the Town of Monroe has frequently cited. Intra-agency communications are NOT somehow prohibited from being shared. The Town can CHOOSE not to share them, and must explain why. In that explanation, the Town must ALSO share why they feel the requested documents are NOT in the public interest. 

Failure to comply may result in an Article 78 Proceeding against the Town of Monroe.

If you determine that certain parts of this request may be more easily produced than others, we are amenable to discussing a production schedule for records that will take longer to produce. Please furnish records to: B.J. Mendelson, The Monroe Gazette, BJ@BJMendelson.com. Please do not hesitate to contact me at that email address if you have any questions about this request. 

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.  For your records, a .pdf has been included with this email. Please write back to confirm your receipt of this notice.

Respectfully, B.J. Mendelson

Editor,

The Monroe Gazette

PO BOX 452

88 St. Rt 17M

Harriman, NY, 10926

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Of course, this FOIL request was not responded to within five business days.

To make sure the Town Clerk could not claim she never got this email, I also copied two witnesses: Councilwoman Maureen Richardson and News 12’s Blaise Gomez.

If you are sending a FOIL request that you think won’t receive a response, I highly recommend copying one or two trusted parties on the email to confirm that they saw and received the email on the date you sent it.

I’ve explained what to send when a municipality does not respond in 5 business days. But here is another sample letter. It’s exactly what I sent to Town of Monroe Clerk, Valerie Bitzer, this morning:

April 24th, 2024

Re: Freedom of Information Law Request: James Patterson HR Complaints

Town of Monroe Town Hall

1465 Orange Turnpike Monroe, NY 10950

Dear Valerie, Tony, and Brian,

I am following-up on a FOIL request I submitted to the Village of South Blooming Grove that was sent to your office on April 16th, 2024.

Agencies, such as the Town of Monroe, must reply within 5 days upon receipt of a request to either grant the request, deny the request in writing, or provide written acknowledgement of receipt of the request and a statement of the approximate date when such requests will be granted or denied under the NY Pub. Off. Law. § 89(3).

If an agency fails to acknowledge the written request for a record within five days or fails to give an approximate date which is reasonable under the circumstances as to when the agency's decision to grant or deny access to the record will be made, then this non-compliance shall constitute a denial under Public Officers Law § 89(4)

Therefore, consider this email a formal appeal being made to the chief executive of the governing body, Supervisor Tony Cardone, and chief records officer, Brian Nugent, under N.Y. Pub. Off. Law § 89(4)(a) to have the requested documents provided or for the request to be denied, or granted with an approximate date when such requests will be granted or denied under NY Pub. Off. Law. § 89(3).

Under the law, Mr. Nugent and Mr. Cardone, you are required to immediately forward a copy of this appeal and the ensuing determination thereon to the Committee on Open Government, N.Y. Pub. Off. Law § 89(4)(a).

You have ten business days from the receipt of this email to respond to this appeal. Failure to do so within the next ten days constitutes a denial of access which entitles me to bring an Article 78 Proceeding against you in New York State Supreme Court.

I have included with this email the above FOIL request in .pdf format. Please write me back to confirm receipt of this email.

-B.J. Mendelson

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The letter above you can copy, paste, and re-use however you’d like when a village like South Blooming Grove, or a town like Monroe, don’t respond to a FOIL request. I also recommend copying the NYS Committee on Open Government on appeal emails like the one above. Their email is coog@dos.ny.gov

This is because I, and residents of Southern Orange County, have no reason to trust that Supervisor Tony Cardone and Town Attorney Brian Nugent or Major George Kalaj and Village Attorney Scot Ugell, will comply properly with the law.

Now, what happens when someone writes you back with a rejection? Good news. That’s not the end of the story either.

I’ll tell you more in ten days after the Town of Monroe finds a way to bungle this one.