Ms. Connie Munday
Town Clerk
Town of Carmel
60 McAlpin Avenue
Mahopac, NY 10541

Dear Ms. Munday:

We are writing in regard to our August 18, 2000 request to see all appraisals of Town Property, Rt. 6, 19 acres, which was discussed as item #22 on the August 16, 2000 Town of Carmel Town Board Meeting.  When we submitted this request to you, you indicated that, in response to a previous request to see these appraisals, you had called Mr. Robert J. Freeman, Executive Director of the Committee on Open Government of the New York State Department of State in Albany.  You stated that Mr. Freeman told you that appraisals are opinion and not factual, and therefore the Town does not have to release appraisals of town-owned land to requesters.  You gave that as the reason for the previous request being denied.  

We have reason to believe that you misinterpreted Mr. Freeman’s position.   While there are certain narrow circumstances in which the Town Board might be justified in withholding limited portions of the appraisals, these circumstances do not apply to our request.   Specifically, releasing four year old appraisals would not impair present or imminent contract awards since there was only one bidder and we understand that the contract has already been written.  You say that the appraisal is an opinion and for this reason it is not releasable.   However, according to the Commission on Open Government, which has issued state opinion letters on the releasability of property appraisals, the key determinant is not whether the appraisal is an opinion, but whether it would seriously impair town business. You have given no clear explanation of how the release of this property appraisal would substantially harm town business.  Mr. Freeman’s opinions also reflect that property appraisals typically consist of factual and statistical matter which do not fall under the rubric of “opinion”.  Therefore, the appraisal should be made public without further delay.  

We are including four opinions written by Mr. Robert J. Freeman of the state agency tasked with such analysis on this very issue:  MUST PROPERTY APPRAISALS BE RELEASED TO A REQUESTER UNDER THE NEW YORK STATE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LAW?  These opinions can also be viewed at:

• http://www.dos.state.ny.us/coog/ftextf7593.txt

• http://www.dos.state.ny.us/coog/ftext/f7936.txt

• http://www.dos.state.ny.us/coog/ftext/f8335.txt

• http://www.dos.state.ny.us/coog/ftext/f10422.txt

We appreciate the diligence with which you approach your responsibility as FOIL access officer for the Town of Carmel.  We understand that your responsibility is to make information available to the residents and taxpayers consistent with state law and that it is only in extreme circumstances that you should take it upon yourself to withhold records.   We hope that you take your direction from the State Committee on Open Government as indicated in the enclosed letters written by Mr. Robert J. Freeman.

We would like to comment that, even if release of such information were not required by law, it does not mean that the Town should choose to withhold it.   Furthermore, withholding these records sends a clear message to taxpayers that the state freedom of information laws are ignored in Carmel, and it gives the appearance of government by secrecy.  We know that this is not your intention, and we believe that you will choose to do what is right.  

We feel compelled to add that we are prepared to take this matter to judicial review if necessary and to seek statutory legal fees. 

Please respond to each of the undersigned individually.  Thank you for your careful consideration in this matter.

Sincerely,

Gerald Ravnitzky
124 Hill Street
Mahopac, NY 10541

Drucilla Cornell
54 Lakeside Road
Mahopac, NY 10541

Gregory DeFreitas
54 Lakeside Road
Mahopac, NY 10541

Copies to: Mr. Robert J. Freeman
                 Mr. Tom Costello
                 NY Journal News
                 Putnam County Courier
                 Mr. Scott Friedman