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Mayor Giuliani's Offical Papers



The following is a posting from Ira Galtman, President of the Board of the
 'Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York.'  Please join ART in
responding to this timely issue.


PETITION TO KEEP FORMER MAYOR GIULIANI'S OFFICIAL PAPERS PUBLIC
Former Mayor Giuliani, in an unprecedented and ill-advised action, has taken
personal control of his official city papers. Under a contract worked out in
the last days of his administration, Giuliani will have the right to block
public access to any papers in which he deems he has a "private interest,"
unless Mayor Bloomberg renegotiates the agreement. Please consider joining me
in signing on to the following petition, which will be forwarded, with all
names that have arrived by Wednesday (January 30) at 12:00 noon, to Mayor
Bloomberg.

- Mike Wallace, Director, Gotham Center for New York City History
We the UNDERSIGNED endorse the attached New York Times editorial, and urge
the city to arrange for the immediate return of all public documents to
public custody.

Name:
Affiliation:
E-mail:
City Papers Belong to the Public
New York Times Editorial, January 26, 2002
A week before he left office, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani quietly worked out a
deal with New York City's records commissioner to move his papers to a
private storage facility in Queens, where they now reside. This
unprecedented and self-serving contract gives him the right to choose an
archivist to catalog a roomful of city documents and to initially determine
what is public and what is not. Mr. Giuliani's people have described this as
an effort to help the city by financing and thus speeding up the archiving
process. Not coincidentally, it will help Mr. Giuliani maintain control of
his image and get quick access to material he needs to fulfill a $3 million
book contract to write about his days as the city's mayor.
The idea of a high elected official controlling his own documents troubles
many historians, archivists and journalists, harking back to the days when
Richard Nixon left the White House with truckloads of papers and tapes. Mr.
Giuliani left office under far different circumstances, but the former mayor
has a long record of refusing to allow access to public documents concerning
his administration. While the contract makes it clear that Mr. Giuliani
cannot legally shred or delete documents without city approval, his own
history does not breed confidence that his hand-picked archivists would err
on the side of openness.
As it stands, most of the work will take place out of the city's reach,
overseen by Mr. Giuliani's new nonprofit Center for Urban Affairs Inc. The
city is supposed to have a say on how matters work at the Queens warehouse
and what documents get shared with the public. But in reality, the
overworked city archivists and the busy corporation counsel are not going to
be able to spare the time to oversee the Giuliani staff's day-to-day
activities.
While speed in organizing the papers may be important to Mr. Giuliani and
his publishers, the top priority for the city is keeping all the material
secure so that a complete record will eventually be available to historians.
The Giuliani forces are supposed to come up with an archiving proposal by
the end of next week, and the city's advisory board on archives plans to
discuss this hijacking of documents at a meeting next month. Both occasions
offer opportunities to make certain these papers are catalogued and
controlled by someone whose first responsibility is to history, not to Mr.
Giuliani.
If speed is Mr. Giuliani's concern, then he should be allowed to help
underwrite the cataloguing so that archivists can do the job more quickly.
But the original documents should be returned to the city's direct control
first. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has defended the contract, must rethink
his position. The mayor has the right to cancel the agreement within 90
days. He should do so unless Mr. Giuliani is willing to renegotiate.
http://www.nytimes.com/
For more information, see:
David Herszenhorn, "Giuliani's Papers Go to Private Group, Not City"New
York Times January 25, 2002.
Wayne Barrett, "Hijacking History: Rudy Heists City Archives to Shape His
Own Legend," Village Voice, January 23 - 29, 2002.
JoAnne Wasserman, "Mike Troubled by Rudy Locking Up His Papers," New York
Daily News, January 25, 2002.

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