New Rochelle Withholds Draft Audit Document After City’s Outside Auditor Cites It in Public Meeting
DUBLIN, IRELAND (July 15, 2026) — New Rochelle has improperly denied my Freedom of Information Law request seeking a draft financial statement that the City's own outside auditor consulted, paged through, and relied upon to answer a direct question from a member of City Council at a meeting of the governing body — a denial that, on the law, does not hold up.
At issue is an exchange during the 9 June COW meeting in which Albert Tarantino asked a question regarding the City's audit. In response, Thomas Smith, a partner at EFPR Group, New Rochelle's outside independent auditor, opened a document clearly marked "Draft," flipped through its pages, and told the Council and the public what the audited financial statements would show.
Talk of the Sound filed FOIL Request No. 26-1060 the same day, seeking the document Mr. Smith relied on. The City's response, reproduced in full below, withheld the record in its entirety, characterizing it as a "non-final intra-agency document" exempt under Public Officers Law § 87(2)(g).
That denial is wrong on multiple, independent grounds — and not close calls. The document was authored by the City's outside auditor, not City staff, which places it within the statute's express carve-out for "external audits." Its "draft" label does not remove it from the reach of FOIL, a point the State Committee on Open Government has made repeatedly over three decades of advisory opinions. And whatever claim to confidentiality the document might once have had was waived the moment Mr. Smith used it, on the record, to answer a question from the dais in front of the public it was prepared to serve. Talk of the Sound's appeal, reproduced below along with the underlying request and denial, lays out the case law and Committee guidance establishing each of these points.
What follows is the complete record: the original FOIL request, the City's denial, and Talk of the Sound's appeal.
