Lawless EDC Continues its Bad Behavior

It is becoming quite clear that AG Schneiderman's mild response to the culture of lawlessness at EDC has simply encouraged the gang to continue its illegal actions-the latest example being the blatantly illegal denial of WPU's Freedom of Information requests. We had asked the agency to give us all records pertaining to:

(1.) federal funding for Van Wyck ramps;

(2.) Phase One RFP responses;

(3.) "Site Information File" that was made available to
developer firms responding to the RFP.

In each case our requests were denied because NYCEDC claims that disclosure will impair a present or imminent contract award. This is pure bee ess since the contract on the bogus Phase I has already been awarded but EDC doesn't want to let the public in on the bidding process-something that was supposed to be part of an open Willets Point Advisory Committee procedure that has been ignored as far as we can determine.

But claiming that giving up information on the ramps will impair a present or imminent contract award is beyond bizarre and dramatizes the extent to which EDC and Slick Seth Pinsky believe that they are beyond the law and public accountability-and in this case, given Comptroller Liu's lax oversight, they're probably correct.

This is, however, some pretty serious business-and no amount of reorganization will do much to alter the culture of lawlessness that Liu observed at the agency, but so far has done little to address. The refusal to honor these FOIA requests should activate concerned elected officials who understand that this off the rails agency needs to be reined in.