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Documents Sought On Award Of Animal Shelter Construction Contract Wrongfully Withheld, According To Lawsuit
Rockland County Business Journal (RCBJ) filed a lawsuit against Rockland Green (the former County Solid Waste Authority) in Rockland County Supreme Court in July, alleging that Rockland Green illegally withheld documents requested under New York’s Freedom of Information Law.
The Freedom of Information Law (“FOIL”) provides the public with the right to access to records maintained by government agencies, including state and local governments and public authorities, with some exceptions.
FOIL was designed to promote government transparency and accountability, helping the public understand governmental decisions and is often used for purposes including gathering information for advocacy or journalism.
Rockland County Business Journal is an independent media outlet reporting on local issues for eight years. RCBJ was working on a story investigating whether Rockland Green illegally steered the award of the construction contract for its new animal shelter to a “preferred” vendor.
The lawsuit, filed as an Article 78 petition, is the only mechanism available to challenge an agency’s violation of the Freedom of Information Law and refusal to provide documents.
Under FOIL, all documents held by government entities are presumed open for public inspection and copying, and documents may be withheld from public inspection only if expressly permitted by a specific statutory exemption, and such exemptions must be interpreted narrowly to ensure the public has the maximum possible access to government records.
As part of a series of stories RCBJ has been reporting on regarding Rockland Green’s takeover of animal management in the county and the construction of a new animal shelter on Ecology Road in West Haverstraw, RCBJ sought information on how Rockland Green selected the contractor for its controversial $18 million animal shelter project. The information sought was part of research designed to help the public understand the authority’s decision-making, as well as to oversee Rockland Green’s spending and other actions.
Specifically, last December, RCBJ sought two sets of records from Rockland Green: (1) the bid documents and submissions from contractors seeking to build the shelter; and (2) notes of the committee assessing the bids supporting its determination made to accept or reject a submitted bid.
In awarding the contract to build the shelter, Rockland Green rejected a lower bid in favor of O’Connor Construction of Pinehurst, North Carolina, a contractor that had never built an animal shelter. In the process, Rockland Green disqualified a number of other bidders. RCBJ wants to know why.
According to the lawsuit, Rockland Green “spent months refusing to provide the records requested.” RCBJ alleges that Rockland Green slow-walked its response, and repeatedly changed its own deadlines for production. It attempted to charge an exorbitant fee before allowing RCBJ to see the documents. And, finally, after it abandoned both gambits in the face of RCBJ’s appeals, Rockland Green unlawfully withheld numerous documents and redacted others.
In July, RCBJ filed suit after three appeals stretching over eight months. The records produced by Rockland Green contained page after page of blacked-out redactions, rendering them useless, and Rockland Green refused to produce any documents evidencing its selection process or its process for disqualification of otherwise qualified vendors.
The records sought pertaining to the animal shelter has sparked years of public controversy. In 2022, Rockland Green assumed oversight from Rockland County of the County’s animal shelter. The shelter had been run by the non-profit Hi Tor Animal Care Center for decades, and prior to Rockland Green’s takeover, the County had initiated a plan to build a new one next door to the existing shelter.
Since the award of the contract last December, there have been a series of change orders totaling over $200,000, boosting the award to O’Connor above and beyond its original bid.
Change orders inflating contract values are nothing new to Rockland Green. Its Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Hillburn, which was bonded for $35 million with taxpayer money, required more than 175 “change orders” or increases to the bottom line. Change orders increased some contracts for that project by 15 percent or more, and in one case by over $1 million.
Rockland County Business Journal is represented by Michael Linhorst and Heather Murray from the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic. The lawsuit seeks production of the documents and costs and attorney’s fees for the violation of FOIL.
Rockland Green is represented by Lee Apotheker and Steven Torres of the White Plains-based West Group Law Firm.
Rockland Green’s answer to RCBJ’s petition is due on August 25, 2025.
