Nathan S. Mitchell, Winner.

It's No Secret.

Law Office of John J. Tormey III, Esq.
John J. Tormey III, PLLC
1578 Third Avenue, PMB 188 (Please Note New Address)
New York, New York 10128 USA
(212) 410-4142 (phone)
(212) 410-2380 (fax)
jtormey@optonline.net

https://www.tormey.org
 
Monday, November 24, 2025
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
foil@esd.ny.gov
Jaclyn Christine Clemmer, Esq.
Senior Counsel/Records Access Officer
Empire State Development Corp. (ESD)
625 Broadway
Albany, New York 12207-2942 USA
 
Re:

My Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) Request #R110-050625
The Village Of Piermont, New York – “Trade Secrets” Cited By ESD In Error
 
Dear Attorney Clemmer:
 
Thank you for your e-mail dated today, November 24, 2025 (“Tormey E-Mail”), which in turn attached/enclosed your letter of same date to Bruce Tucker, the current Mayor of the Village of Piermont (“Tucker Letter”). Both documents are attached/enclosed back to you herewith as collective “Exhibit A”, for your ease of reference:

https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/11/cough-it-up-garmento-albany-ruins.html

As an aside, you may already be aware that Mayor Tucker departs his mayoral office on December 31, 2025, as he did not seek re-election this year while under the cloud of a New York State Comptroller (OSC) Audit and Investigation.
 
Without prejudice to my right and ability to, in the future, appeal and litigate any FOIL determination later made in this matter, it appears that someone on your staff erroneously sent Mayor Tucker and the Village of Piermont the wrong form-letter today when dispatching the Tucker Letter to him. Perhaps this was done out of haste.
 
The first paragraph on the first un-numbered page of the Tucker Letter purports to alert the addressee, Piermont’s Mayor Tucker, to “the following documents related to your [Tucker’s] company”. [Emphasis added]. However, you and I both know that the Village of Piermont is a municipality and a governmental agency – and decidedly not a “company”[sic]:

What is essentially the same error is then compounded but in a much more material manner, in the Tucker Letter’s penultimate paragraph on the Tucker Letter’s un-numbered seventh page. That passage, as directed to addressee Tucker, reads, in relevant part:
 

“Pursuant to Public Officers Law, Section 89(5)(b)(2), a commercial entity has ten (10) business days to submit a written justification for trade secret protection”. [Emphasis added]:

Yet again - the Village of Piermont is a municipality and a governmental agency – and not a “commercial entity”[sic]. Therefore, the Tucker Letter appears to set an expressly inapposite deadline running against Tucker for Tucker’s response, which is all the more troubling when you consider that: (A) Mayor Tucker is high-tailing it out of office in a few weeks at the end of this December, and (B) the fact that it took ESD over six (6) months to even get this far in response to my FOIL request.
 
To similar effect, the sixth un-numbered page of the Tucker Letter warns Mayor Tucker that an ESD withholding of documents can only be effected to “those portions of [Piermont-reposed] documents containing information… that, if released, would cause your [Tucker’s] enterprise to suffer a competitive disadvantage…” [Emphasis added]:

Again, someone on your staff erroneously must have sent Mayor Tucker and the Village of Piermont the wrong form-letter when dispatching the Tucker Letter to him today. Tucker and his Village are government – not a “company”, not a “commercial entity”, not an “enterprise”[sic], and not an entity in any economically “competitive”[sic] relationship to other entities.
 
The fact of the matter is, the Tucker Letter should never have been written at all, and should never have issued to Bruce Tucker or the Village of Piermont. In this regard, I note that other agencies in New York State have already produced voluminous records to me under FOIL relating to Piermont grant monies:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-volunteerism-at-its-finest.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/feeding-from-trough.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-how-not-to.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-rubbish.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-she-drew.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-sylvia.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-yorg-drops.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-us4310625.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/garmento-mayor-and-village-yorg-feed.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-for-zoning.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-how-village.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-sail-on.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/pierontsic-nysdos-grant-money-for.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-0-piermont.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-village.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/piermont-nysdos-grant-money-when-sign.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2025/09/garmento-mayor-bruce-tucker-learns-hard.html
 
To my knowledge, none of those other agencies in New York State first ran the proposed FOIL document-production by Tucker and Piermont for any “trade secret” analysis before sending them to me. Why? Because a New York State village government like Piermont should not be keeping “secrets” of any kind from Town of Orangetown residents like myself nor from any other members of the public – and the other agencies in New York State know that.
 
Hypothetically, it would be one thing if ESD were to first write, let’s say, Exxon, before ESD then produced records to me under FOIL containing possible Exxon trade secrets. That caution makes sense under the FOIL statute, because Exxon is a for-profit company and commercial enterprise, actually in competition with other for-profit companies and commercial enterprises.
 
However, it makes no sense whatsoever for one governmental agency, ESD, to write another, second governmental agency in the form of Mayor Tucker and the Village of Piermont - asking if the second governmental agency wishes to conceal its own governmental agency “trade secrets” within the dank coffers of its own Village Hall. The FOIL law does not support your government agency collaborating with another, second government agency to conceal the “secrets” of the other, second government agency – as belied by your own office’s form letter misdirected in error to Mayor Bruce Tucker and the Village of Piermont. Rather, these documents and other records should all be produced to me under FOIL.
 
Accordingly, demand is hereby made that ESD rectify this error immediately: (1) by retracting the Tucker Letter upon further written notice to Mayor Tucker and Piermont, copied to me, and (2) by producing to me, now, the totality of all documents and other records responsive to my May 5, 2025 FOIL request – without further delay.
 
It is outrageous that it has taken over six (6) months for ESD to even attempt any substantive action and response to my May 5, 2025 FOIL.
 
Very truly yours,

John J. Tormey III, Esq.
 

cc:

VIA FAX: 1-518-474-3767, and U.S. MAIL
info@kathyhochul.com
lizamiz@rcn.com
The Honorable Kathleen C. (Kathy) Hochul - Governor of New York State
Office of the Governor of the State of New York
Stacy Lynch - Chief of Staff
Elizabeth Ruth Fine, Esq. - Counsel to the Governor
New York State Capitol Building
Albany, New York 12224 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL
The Honorable Kathleen C. (Kathy) Hochul - Governor of New York State
Office of the Governor of the State of New York
New York State Executive Chamber
633 3rd Avenue, 39^th Floor
New York, New York 10017-6706 USA
 
VIA U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
hknight@empire.state.ny.us
Hope Knight
President, CEO & Commissioner
Empire State Development Corp. (ESD)
625 Broadway
Albany, New York 12207-2942 USA
 
VIA FAX: 1-518-474-1927, U.S. MAIL, and E-MAIL:
dosCOOG@dos.ny.gov
coog@dos.ny.gov
Miguel-Carlo Bautista, Esq. – Assistant Attorney 3
New York State Committee on Open Government (COOG)
One Commerce Plaza
Albany, New York 12231 USA

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