by Cindy Goldstein -
If you happened to be paying attention in your high school English class the day that Kurt Vonnegut’s book, Slaughterhouse Five discussed, you might recall the character. In the book Kilgore Trout is an obscure and unsuccessful science fiction writer. SparkNotes describes Trout’s personality as “cruel and misanthropic.”
While Kilgore is a figment of Vonnegut’s active imagination, there is a real life Kilgor (sic) Trout who submits Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests to the Village of Mamaroneck.
What is FOIL?
The purpose of FOIL is to provide transparency to the public about governmental actions. It gives the public the right to request access to records in order to protect against corruption by holding the government accountable. Requests for information may be legally withheld if they fall within the scope of the FOIL exceptions. See FOIL Law HERE. There’s no prohibition in New York State law from requesting records anonymously, nor must you demonstrate residency or list a reason for your request.
Trout Casts a Wide Net
Starting in March 2024, Trout submitted 16 requests for information under this alias. See full list HERE. The topics were wide-ranging, from the ethics disclosure statements for all elected Village officials, to four requests for communications between former interim Village Manager Chuck Strome and newly hired Village Manager Kathleen Gill. Trout was particularly interested in Gill’s hiring and requested communications with the search consultant.
There are also requests for any email communications from Stuart Tiekert, Kathy Savolt, Sue McCrory, Amy Siskind, and Cindy Goldstein to any member of the Board of Trustees (BOT). (Savolt and Goldstein are Editors of The Mamaroneck Observer.)
Trout alleged Trustee Nora Lucas used her personal email to conduct Village business and on September 16th, requested Lucas’s personal emails for the past 4 years.
And on April 12, 2024 Trout asked for the ethics disclosure forms for 10 seemingly random Village residents serving on volunteer boards that included Laura Abbate, Donyella Bierman, Bernard Camarda, Tim O’Connor and Robert Stark, all residents who have spoken regularly at Board of Trustees meetings.
Barberio Requests
Another frequent FOIL-er in 2024 was former Village Manager Jerome Barberio. See list HERE. He submitted 26 requests for information after his March 10th, 2024 retirement from the Village. See Article HERE. During his tenure as Village Manager, Barberio also served as the FOIL Appeals officer.
Barberio’s flurry of requests were all made between August 7th and September 23rd. General themes of concern included Mayor Sharon Torres’ residence, IT Department records, information regarding the hiring of the Village Planner, communications between Village Officials and interim Village Manager Chuck Strome along with VOM Ethics Board emails from McCrory and Tiekert.
Searching for Personal Emails
Barberio also accused Mayor Torres of deleting work emails and on September 20th, requested information from her personal email account regarding Village business.
Although neither Barberio nor Trout can hold a candle to frequent-FOILer Stuart Tiekert, they are each clearly very interested in getting information from the Village. Many of the requests are for “intra-agency” communications which are generally exempt from FOIL and therefore those requests may be denied.
FOIL requests are not difficult to make. They must be specific and for information that exists (i.e., the documents do not have to be created). Requests should be emailed to FOIL@vomny.org or online at the Clerk Treasurer’s page of the Village website.
Unsolved Mystery
Anyone has a right to request access to government records and since requests can be made anonymously, Trout’s identity may never be known.
UPDATE: Trout Pops Up Again
On January 24th, Trout makes multiple comments on an article in the Larchmont Loop written by former Trustee Lou Young introducing his former BOT colleague Manny Rawlings as a candidate for Westchester County Legislator. The article received some comments from residents to which Trout shot back with personal insults and a defense of Rawlings’ ethics violation. See original comments HERE. As of January 26th, Trout’s incendiary comments were removed from the article. See article with comments removed HERE.
