Media Seeks Access To Giuliani's Records

By: Timothy Williams, Associated Press Writer (AP) Shortly after Mayor Michael Bloomberg took office in January, he pledged to make accessible thousands of pages of historically important documents that were removed from City Hall by the Giuliani administration.

But the Bloomberg administration has released little in response to a months-long effort by The Associated Press to gain access to the Giuliani archives, raising questions about whether the records are truly available to the public.

The AP requested copies of all records related to Giuliani's establishment of the Twin Towers Fund, a multimillion-dollar charity for families of Sept. 11 victims, and all documents detailing the administration's response to the anthrax threat that terrified the city last fall.

The requests, first made six months ago under the state's Freedom of Information Law, have led to the release of just 13 pages related to the Twin Towers Fund, and a single news release regarding the city's handling of the anthrax scare.

By contrast, the state Attorney General's office released more than 300 pages of Twin Towers documents generated by the city and filed with the state agency. Those documents were made available within a single business day following the AP's request.

Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo, the city's top lawyer, said the Bloomberg administration complied lawfully with AP's request, and repeated assurances the public would have speedy access to the records. "I can tell you that to the best of my knowledge relating to the request, that there are no other records in the archive," Cardozo said.

Mayoral records from the Giuliani administration, vast portions of which are presumed to be public documents, are no longer in the city's possession.

"These documents are important for the historical record because people want to know how the city responded during this historical crisis -- to find out what it did right, what it did wrong," said Gene Russianoff, an attorney with the New York Public Interest Research Group.

Seven days before Giuliani's term expired, the city agreed to hand over the records to the Rudolph W. Giuliani Center for Urban Affairs, a private organization run by colleagues of the ex-mayor.

The arrangement, unprecedented in New York City, drew protests from historians who feared the documents would be inaccessible, and from officials who said it did not comply with state law.

"The problem was absolutely predictable and now it's all coming true," said Robert Freeman, director of the state Committee on Open Government, which oversees public-access laws.

The arrangement covers records from all eight years of the former mayor's tenure. The contract was disclosed only after Giuliani left office and the documents were relocated to a Queens warehouse to be copied and archived. The originals are eventually to be returned to the city.

Giuliani declined to be interviewed for this article, but earlier said, "the whole purpose of this was to bring in a professional archivist ... to make them more accessible rather than less."