Law Office of John J. Tormey III, Esq.
John J. Tormey III, PLLC
1636 Third Avenue, PMB 188
New York, New York 10128 USA
(212) 410-4142 (phone)
(212) 410-2380 (fax)
jtormey@optonline.net
www.tormey.org
Information Privacy and Governance (IPG) Division, Room 4E.301
99 New York Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20226 USA
Attn: Lynette Carter, FOIA Public Liaison
City of
Elizabeth, NJ (Plenary) Retail License No.: 2004-33-227-001
Business: “Front Street Smokehouse & Saloon, Inc.” – (908) 354-1818 –
www.frontstreetsmokehouse.com
Location: One South Front Street, Elizabeth, New Jersey 07206 USA (Elizabeth
Avenue and Front Street).
Possible
Aliases: a/k/a “Lava Lounge”, f/k/a
“South Seas Bar”.
Principal: Bruce Edward Tucker, [___] Piermont Place, Piermont, New York 10968 USA.
Principal: Philip Costanza, 523 3rd Avenue, Elizabeth, New Jersey 07202
USA.
Principal: Bruce L. Kain, 1147 Debra Drive, Linden, New Jersey 07036 USA.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/552
request is hereby made that you and your offices timely provide to this, my law office, full, complete, unredacted, and otherwise unexpurgated copies of each and every document and other item of material (collectively, “Records”) which may be at all responsive to the following:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/12/piermont-mayor-bruce-tuckers-foray-into.html
- Front Street Smokehouse & Saloon, Inc.
- One South Front Street, Elizabeth, New Jersey 07206 USA (Elizabeth Avenue and Front Street)
- “Lava Lounge”.
- “South Seas Bar”.
- Bruce Edward Tucker, [___] Piermont Place, Piermont, New York 10968 USA.
- Philip Costanza, 523 3rd Avenue, Elizabeth, New Jersey 07202 USA.
- Bruce L. Kain, 1147 Debra Drive, Linden, New Jersey 07036 USA.
(all, collectively, “The Smokehouse Parties”).
John J. Tormey III, Esq.
- - - - -
EXHIBIT A – FEE WAIVER
REQUEST
Freedom Of Information Act – Fee Waiver Request
Wednesday, January 1, 2025
Under 5 U.S.C. §552(a)(6), 17 CFR §200.80(f)(1):
1.
I assure you and the ATF that disclosure in this case is not at all in the interest of me, the requester. 5 U.S.C. Section 552(a)(4)(iii). The disclosure will not further any commercial interest of mine. While I am an attorney in New York, I am not pursuing this matter for any client. Rather, I volunteered to assist the small Village of Piermont, New York out of my own initiative without being asked, pro bono and solely out of my own pocket, as an environmental and community advocate, watchdog, and private citizen - once I realized in April 2024 that Piermont was being threatened by a crooked village government, a corrupted mayor, over-development, and environmental harm. To date I have spent thousands of dollars out of my own hard-earned money for expenses to pursue the matter at hand, and I will not see any of it back. See, e.g., Coalition for Safe Power v. U.S. Dep't of Energy, Civ. No. 87-1380PA, slip op. at 7 (D.Or. July 22, 1988) (citing Better Gov't Ass'n v. Department of State, 780 F.2d 86, 94 (D.C. Cir. 1986)).
Therefore, the public interest in disclosure is far
greater than my non-existent commercial interest as requester under 17 CFR §
200.80(g)(12). I have no commercial interest whatsoever in this matter.
2.
I also assure you and the ATF that disclosure of the requested information is absolutely in the public interest, and disclosure will contribute significantly to operations and activities of the government, both federal and state. Again, I am in the process of exposing a corrupted local village government and local village mayor in the State of New York. The mayor is named Bruce Edward Tucker, and he had an ownership interest in the subject Elizabeth, New Jersey bar and restaurant within your ATF jurisdiction. Whenever I obtain results relating to the Piermont matter, I blog them to my own Google Blogger blog, to between 10 and 300 local Facebook pages, to Twitter/X, to BlueSky, and to Quora, at minimum. I also e-mail the blogs to individual Piermont residents, and they are approximately 2,500 in number. Examples of such blog entries are below, and many thousands of readers have viewed these entries:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com
See, e.g., Friends of the Coast Fork v. U.S. Dept. of Interior, 110 F 3d. 53, 55 (9th Cir. 1997).
Moreover:
3.
The subject matter of the records that I requested of ATF concern the operations and activities of the federal government – namely, the manner in which your ATF interacted with and oversaw, or did not interact with and oversee, “Front Street Smokehouse & Saloon, Inc.” and Bruce Tucker on alcohol matters.
4.
The requested records will be meaningfully informative on those operations or activities so that their disclosure will contribute to increased understanding of specific operations or activities of the government. Right now, there are 2,500 residents of Piermont, New York, many of whom are waiting to see what ATF will reply to today’s January 1, 2025 FOIA request. They read my blog and my other social media posts on a regular basis, as indicated by my Google Blogger statistics. Many of them want to know what oversight the federal government, in the form of your ATF, may or may not have exercised over Mayor Bruce Tucker’s bar and restaurant in Elizabeth, New Jersey. See, e.g., Better Gov't Ass'n v. Department of State, 780 F.2d 86, 88-89 (D.C. Cir. 1986); McClellan Ecological Seepage Situation v. Carlucci, 835 F.2d 1282, 1284-1286 (9th. Cir. 1987).
5.
Disclosure will contribute to the understanding of the public at large, rather than the understanding of the requester or a narrow segment of interested persons alone. My blog, for example, is worldwide, and not just limited to Piermont, New York residents:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com
How the Piermont matter resolves will be precedential with respect to every other local village government in New York State, and indeed every other local village government within the United States of America. My cause to bring out the truth about Piermont village government and Mayor Bruce Tucker’s malfeasance, has already been picked up by media, and these news outlets also transmit world-wide:
https://rocklandnews.com/unhand-piermont-mayor-bruce-tucker/
https://patch.com/new-york/nyack/discussion-continue-controversial-piermont-apartments-proposal
6.
Disclosure will contribute significantly to public understanding of government operations and activities - namely, the manner in which your ATF interacted with and oversaw, or did not interact with and oversee, “Front Street Smokehouse & Saloon, Inc.”. The residents of Piermont, and members of the public generally, want to know and have a right to know what oversight the federal government in the form of your ATF may or may not have exercised over “Front Street Smokehouse & Saloon, Inc.” and Mayor Bruce Tucker.
In closing, I have borne the burden under FOIA of
showing that the fee waiver requirements have been met. I have provided you
substantive information relating to all of the six (6) factors to be considered
under the statute.
I am not a “Commercial Use” requester.
Respectfully submitted,
John J. Tormey III, Esq.
Wednesday, January 1, 2025
I assure you and the ATF that disclosure in this case is not at all in the interest of me, the requester. 5 U.S.C. Section 552(a)(4)(iii). The disclosure will not further any commercial interest of mine. While I am an attorney in New York, I am not pursuing this matter for any client. Rather, I volunteered to assist the small Village of Piermont, New York out of my own initiative without being asked, pro bono and solely out of my own pocket, as an environmental and community advocate, watchdog, and private citizen - once I realized in April 2024 that Piermont was being threatened by a crooked village government, a corrupted mayor, over-development, and environmental harm. To date I have spent thousands of dollars out of my own hard-earned money for expenses to pursue the matter at hand, and I will not see any of it back. See, e.g., Coalition for Safe Power v. U.S. Dep't of Energy, Civ. No. 87-1380PA, slip op. at 7 (D.Or. July 22, 1988) (citing Better Gov't Ass'n v. Department of State, 780 F.2d 86, 94 (D.C. Cir. 1986)).
I also assure you and the ATF that disclosure of the requested information is absolutely in the public interest, and disclosure will contribute significantly to operations and activities of the government, both federal and state. Again, I am in the process of exposing a corrupted local village government and local village mayor in the State of New York. The mayor is named Bruce Edward Tucker, and he had an ownership interest in the subject Elizabeth, New Jersey bar and restaurant within your ATF jurisdiction. Whenever I obtain results relating to the Piermont matter, I blog them to my own Google Blogger blog, to between 10 and 300 local Facebook pages, to Twitter/X, to BlueSky, and to Quora, at minimum. I also e-mail the blogs to individual Piermont residents, and they are approximately 2,500 in number. Examples of such blog entries are below, and many thousands of readers have viewed these entries:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com
See, e.g., Friends of the Coast Fork v. U.S. Dept. of Interior, 110 F 3d. 53, 55 (9th Cir. 1997).
The subject matter of the records that I requested of ATF concern the operations and activities of the federal government – namely, the manner in which your ATF interacted with and oversaw, or did not interact with and oversee, “Front Street Smokehouse & Saloon, Inc.” and Bruce Tucker on alcohol matters.
The requested records will be meaningfully informative on those operations or activities so that their disclosure will contribute to increased understanding of specific operations or activities of the government. Right now, there are 2,500 residents of Piermont, New York, many of whom are waiting to see what ATF will reply to today’s January 1, 2025 FOIA request. They read my blog and my other social media posts on a regular basis, as indicated by my Google Blogger statistics. Many of them want to know what oversight the federal government, in the form of your ATF, may or may not have exercised over Mayor Bruce Tucker’s bar and restaurant in Elizabeth, New Jersey. See, e.g., Better Gov't Ass'n v. Department of State, 780 F.2d 86, 88-89 (D.C. Cir. 1986); McClellan Ecological Seepage Situation v. Carlucci, 835 F.2d 1282, 1284-1286 (9th. Cir. 1987).
Disclosure will contribute to the understanding of the public at large, rather than the understanding of the requester or a narrow segment of interested persons alone. My blog, for example, is worldwide, and not just limited to Piermont, New York residents:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com
How the Piermont matter resolves will be precedential with respect to every other local village government in New York State, and indeed every other local village government within the United States of America. My cause to bring out the truth about Piermont village government and Mayor Bruce Tucker’s malfeasance, has already been picked up by media, and these news outlets also transmit world-wide:
https://rocklandnews.com/unhand-piermont-mayor-bruce-tucker/
https://patch.com/new-york/nyack/discussion-continue-controversial-piermont-apartments-proposal
Disclosure will contribute significantly to public understanding of government operations and activities - namely, the manner in which your ATF interacted with and oversaw, or did not interact with and oversee, “Front Street Smokehouse & Saloon, Inc.”. The residents of Piermont, and members of the public generally, want to know and have a right to know what oversight the federal government in the form of your ATF may or may not have exercised over “Front Street Smokehouse & Saloon, Inc.” and Mayor Bruce Tucker.
