What Is In Our Agreement with New York City and Why It Is Important
City Document Release: Home | Agreement | 2021-2026 | 2001-2020
For 25 years, four different Mayoral administrations kept from the public, the U.S. Congress, and the City Council documents showing what the City actually knew about the danger of the toxic chemicals in Lower Manhattan and Western Brooklyn after the World Trade Center collapse, even as City officials continued messaging to the public that the air was “safe and acceptable.”
Over the next year the City of New York working with 911 Health Watch will be releasing hundreds of thousands of pages of documents that have been hidden for too long.
911 Health Watch reached this point after a long journey but did not get here alone. Thought the efforts of the NYS AFL-CIO which created 911 Health Watch along with the individuals, labor unions, community and environmental groups that long demanded the government address the air quality crisis that sickened so many and advocated for relief.
You can see their prior efforts here.
They worked for years fighting prior City Administrations.
This recent effort started when Congresswoman Maloney and Congressman Jerold Nadler, just after the 20th Anniversary of the attacks, asked then-Mayor de Blasio to review the City’s records and release them. The requests were ignored by Mayor de Blasio and fought by his successor, Mayor Adams.
911 Health Watch followed up their efforts with the help of our pro bono counsel’s Andrew Carboy and Matthew McCauley, who, when Mayor Adams refused to respond to the requests of Representative Maloney and Nadler, and then Congressman Dan Goldman, began our own Freedom of Information process and lawsuits seeking the documents.
You can read about our efforts to gain the release of these documents here.
Through our work:
- The City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) reversed its denial that responsive records existed and turned over hundreds of thousands of pages;
- We learned the City Law Department systematically collected, scanned and archived relevant World Trade Center records from every City agency in 2002, directing their permanent retention;
- Located the Deputy Mayor Robert Harding memo, a document the City denied existed in a private Texas archive, making it public for the first time in our Court filings. The memo showed that, by October 2001, the City feared that its urging residents to return to lower Manhattan before it was safe to do so would result in over 10,000 toxic claims;
- Argued for and won a ruling from NYS Supreme Court Justice Clynes that the City violated public records law;
- Took testimony from a City public records official that our requests were denied, at the direction of his supervisor, without appropriate searches and interviews being conducted.
It is after these efforts that 911 Health Watch reached an agreement with Corporation Counsel Steve Banks representing Mayor Mamdani to reverse the obstruction of the past quarter century and get the records we sought released to the public.
Part of this effort and credit for this was the work of Council Member Gale Brewer, who did two things: Using a provision in the City Charter for the first time, she and her staff obtained Council passage of a resolution mandating the Department of Investigation to investigate the City’s September 11th archive. And she highlighted the issue at the confirmation hearing of the Corporation Counsel.
The DOI investigation is now fully funded, with $4 million, will span the next two years, and culminate in an official, definitive report of findings as to what the City knew and when about airborne contaminants in the months after the World Trade Center collapse.
With the Councilmember in this effort was then-City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who supported the DOI resolution, as well as the current City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who worked to ensure the investigation was fully funded, also highlighting the issue at the confirmation hearing of the Corporation Counsel.
Also critical to our success was the New York Daily News, its reporters, and Editorial Board for covering this story exhaustively from the beginning—and especially in the past five years.
And key to this outcome was New York Supreme Court Justice James G. Clynes for his careful attention to our Article 78 case and fair application of the law.
Justice Clyne’s decision led directly to our settlement.
- On May 28, 2026, Justice Clynes ruled that the Adams administration violated the Freedom of Information Law by denying 911 Health Watch’s 2023 request for September 11th records. The Court deemed the City’s obstruction “arbitrary and capricious.” Justice Clynes’ decision, which the City elected not to appeal and is now time-barred from doing so, drove today’s settlement with the Mamdani administration.
- Justice Clynes also ordered City officials responsible for the denials during the Adams Administration to explain their obstruction under oath. Questioning the first official, we learned that the DEP denied our requests for World Trade Center documents at the direction of a lawyer—not because the responsible DEP staff member had conducted a search for the records or interviewed staffers with any knowledge, as required by law.
- This testimony revealed the decades-long efforts of the City, all the way from the attacks through to the Adams administration, to keep the September 11th archive a secret, hidden from the public.
Here is his final order in this case.
We expect the City of New York’s portal to include records hidden from the public for over 25 years and documents responsive to 911 Health Watch’s FOIL requests.
Here are the major points of the agreement reached between 911 Health Watch and the City:
- First, the City agrees to launch a Records Portal with the goal of making publicly available: as many of the records 911 Health Watch sought as well as other records of public interest and importance. The City will also provide information about relevant programs for those still impacted by September 11th.
- Second, the City acknowledges, for the first time, the existence of the Harding Memo. It will provide a link to the memo on the public portal, along with “an explanation as to how the document was identified and made available.”
- Third, the City commits to support the DOI investigation, pledging full cooperation, but also to significant collaboration in the future.
- Fourth, the City pledges to improve access to records needed by rescue and recovery workers, survivors, former City employees, and public-school students to establish their presence in the Exposure Zone to become eligible for enrollment in the World Trade Center Health Program (“WTCHP”) and September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (“VCF”);
- Fifth, the City will promote awareness of and participation in the World Trade Center Health Program’s Youth Research Cohort, once the program opens. This federal research program will study illnesses that may have developed among those who were minors or in utero during the aftermath.
- For the City to reach these goals, 911 Health Watch and its counsel will meet with the City, monthly, for the next year.
- At these monthly meetings, 911 Health Watch will address “the total number of documents produced, the total number of pages produced, the sources of the documents (department) and the subject matter.” The agreement further provides that additional search terms and subject matters may be raised at any time, and that “the City will consider them, in good faith, with a view to locating other responsive records and posting them.”
- Although the case is being resolved, Justice Clynes will retain authority over the proceeding for one year. If disputes arise, Justice Clynes will have the authority to grant relief and order further Court-supervised investigation and testimony.”