CITY SURRENDERS PUBLIC RECORDS TO DEVELOPER: New Rochelle Hands Over Flowers Park Bid, Lets Bob Young and His Lawyers Decide What the Public Gets to See

NEW ROCHELLE, NY (December 1, 2025) — Despite bleating on endlessly about transparency and public engagement, Yadira & Co. are by far the least transparent group to run City Hall in anyone’s memory.

What has just happened with the Flowers Park RFP Response is a despicable, deceitful act by City Manager Will Melendez. It raises very real doubts about his fitness to continue as City Manager of New Rochelle. The result is my obtaining something purporting to be Bob Young’s response to the Flowers ParK RFP but there is no way to know if it is.

As readers want to see what I got earlier today under a month-old FOIL request let presented it first then get into the treachery by Yadira & Co.

Bob Young Response to Flowers Park RFP

With that out of the way, let me explain my concern about the chain of custody of this document which may or may not be the response submitted to the City on October 29 by Bob Young.

In an unprecedented surrender of public control over public records, the City of New Rochelle secretly turned over the only bid proposal for the redevelopment of Flowers Park to the bidder himself, real estate developer Bob Young, so that he and his attorneys could decide what the public would be allowed to see.

Instead of city officials reviewing the document in-house and making legally required redactions themselves, City Manager Wilfredo Melendez confirmed on November 25 that the original proposal had been physically returned to Young’s team (weeks after my FOIL request) with instructions to black out whatever they deemed proprietary and confidential. The redacted version was then sent back to City Hall today and became the official record released under the Freedom of Information Law to me, linked above.

I have been pressing for the document since the October 29 RFP deadline. The process undertaken by Will Melendez is a complete breakdown of chain of custody and a violation of both the letter and spirit of New York’s open-records law. He needs to go.

In an email to Melendez on December 1, I warned him that because the city no longer possesses the unredacted original, there is no way to verify that the document was not altered beyond simple redactions or that the blacked-out sections actually qualify for exemptions under public officers law. I cannot appeal the redactions to the City because they do not have the original records to compare nor can they answer for redactions made by Bob Young.

The city’s actions effectively allowed a private developer to edit his own public submission, undermining the core principle that government, not the regulated party, determines what information belongs to the people. As of Monday, the city had provided no legal justification for delegating its statutory duty to the very entity whose bid is under scrutiny, leaving residents to question whether the version now on file at City Hall is the same one submitted six weeks ago.

Email Thread Seeking Flowers Park RFP Response

Here is the complete email thread of my attempts to obtain the Bob Young Response in strict chronological order from October 29 through December 1, 2025.

• Tue, 10/29/25 at 20:05 — Robert Cox (initial FOIL request after RFP deadline)
  Formal public records request for all Flowers Park RFP bids.
• Thu, 10/30/25 at 07:52 — Robert Cox
  Follow-up request to City Manager emphasizing transparency and asking for immediate release or posting on city website.
• Fri, 10/31/25 at 13:36 — Wilfredo Melendez Initial denial: bids not releasable under POL while procurement is ongoing.
• Wed, 11/12/25 at 09:38 — Robert Cox expresses willingness to accept redacted version, argues non-proprietary, non-confidential portions should be released.
• Thu, 11/13/25 at 15:46 — Robert Cox Requests copy of City Manager’s statement on Flowers Park.
• Thu, 11/13/25 at 21:22 — Wilfredo Melendez Confirms he is posting a statement.
• Thu, 11/13/25 at 21:33 — Robert Cox
  “Got it. Thanks. For good order’s sake, can you send along the bid proposal (redacted…)
• Fri, 11/14/25 at 17:47 — Robert Cox
  Nudge: “Hate to be a nudge but… would like to post the Flowers Park bid docs today.”
• Tue, 11/18/25 at 13:19 — Robert Cox
  “I return home tomorrow… Can you please send them no later than tomorrow morning
• Tue, 11/18/25 at 15:25 — Kim Jones
  Asks Robert Cox to formally FOIL the request.
• Tue, 11/18/25 at 15:56 — Robert Cox
  Re-submits full formal FOIL language for all Flowers Park RFP documents.
• Thu, 11/20/25 at 04:40 — Robert Cox
  Sets noon deadline; threatens story on stonewalling, cites lack of legal basis to withhold since RFP was pulled.
• Thu, 11/20/25 at 17:26 — Wilfredo Melendez replies “FOIL response forthcoming.”
• Fri, 11/21/25 at 06:14 — Robert Cox
  Notes deadline passed, says he will publish story on stonewalling.
• Fri, 11/21/25 at 15:15 — Robert Cox learns Bob Young has requested return of his RFP response, makes New FOIL specifically for all emails referencing the return of Spec 5820 to the bidder.
• Tue, 11/25/25 at 03:28 — Robert Cox
  Escalation: accuses stonewalling, references transparency promises, again threatens story. Tue, 11/25/25 at 13:23 — Wilfredo Melendez Admits proposals were returned to the bidder for redaction; city is waiting on redacted version from Bob Young
• Tue, 11/25/25 at 13:50 — Robert Cox is dumbfounded by gross violation of handling of public records. “Are you telling me you returned the bid proposal documents? … What is the timeline?”
• Mon, 12/01/25 at 16:50 — Robert Cox After finally receiving redacted document: raises chain-of-custody concerns, accuses city of violating FOIL by letting bidder redact and return documents, threatens appeal and article questioning document integrity.