CBM victorious in court battle

On September 27th, the Hon. Allan B. White issued the following ruling on Citizen for a Better Maspeth's Article 78 to force the City of New York to turn over documents relating to the planned conversion of the Maspeth Holiday Inn Express into a shelter:

"It is ordered and adjudged that the petition is granted solely to the extent that respondents are directed to provide petitioner with copies of the Request For Proposals that were received in connection with the proposal to convert the subject Holiday Inn Express to a homeless shelter, and any and all plans submitted along with the RFPs which demonstrate that the space would be a conforming use under the Zoning Resolution; and it is further ordered and adjudged that the remainder of the petition is denied in its entirety."

There were 3 things we FOILed:

• Stats regarding homeless individuals in the system identical to those previously FOILed and provided by the administration in 2014. That request was denied by the judge for "privacy" reasons. We do not agree with that ruling, but rather than appeal through the court, we will be resubmitting a revised FOIL request for that information.
• We also requested the original building plans for the hotel. A full set of plans was provided by the architect and in return they were dropped as a defendant.
• The third thing we requested was the most important - the RFP responses. This was part of the decision that relates to that:

"The October 7, 2016 FOIL request sought the RFP for the subject Holiday Inn Express, and related documents. The DHS’s FOIL Appeals Officer denied said request pursuant to Public Officers Law §87(2)(c), which provides, in pertinent part, that such records “if disclosed, would impair present or imminent contract awards”. Said exemption “primarily protects the interests of an agency in achieving the optimum result in awarding a contract to a supplier of goods or services or in reaching a collective bargaining agreement” (Matter Verizon NY, Inc. v Bradbury, 40 AD3d 1113, 1115 [2nd Dept 2007]).

Citizens, however, is not a competitor for the operation of a homeless shelter, and as respondents assert the proposal to convert the subject premises to a homeless shelter has been discontinued, the disclosure of the RFP to the petitioner will not impair respondent DHS’s discussions and negotiations with Acacia or other non-profit organizations. Respondent DHS, thus, has failed to establish that disclosure of the RFP falls squarely within the ambit of Public Officers Law § 87 (2) (c). In addition the DHS has failed to establish that no documents exist with respect to item (1) of said request which sought “[a]ny and all plans submitted which demonstrates to DHS that the space would be a conforming use under the Zoning Resolution”. Therefore, said documents are not exempt from disclosure, and the DHS is required to provide petitioner with copies of the RFPs that were received in connection with the proposal to convert the subject Holiday Inn Express to a homeless shelter, and any and all plans submitted along with the RFPs which demonstrate that the space would be a conforming use under the Zoning Resolution."

Even though the original full shelter conversion plan was scrapped, Acacia has been renting rooms at the HIE to place individuals for much longer than 30 day stays. Only short stay hotels are permitted in manufacturing zones. The property owner has argued a violation of the zoning code in their lawsuit against the hotel and once we receive the info from the city we will share it with the property owner to strengthen their case. We also may proceed with our own lawsuit based on the zoning, but that will only be determined after review of the information provided and consulting with our attorneys.