AAP Jumps into Rudy Fray

The Association of American Publishers is appealing to New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg to nullify a contract his predecessor signed that allowed him to move the papers from his tenure into private storage.

In a letter sent to Bloomberg, AAP president Patricia Schroeder wrote, "The U.S. book publishing industry is dismayed at the news that the City has entered into an agreement to place all of the records of former Mayor Giuliani's eight-year administration into private hands for archiving." She added, "The archival record of Mr. Giuliani's administration are too important to be pre-screened and pre-judged in secret."

The contract, which Rudy Giuliani signed before he left office in December, allows the documents, audiotapes and transcripts from his two terms in office to go directly into the former mayor's own archives rather than into public vaults, where mayoral records normally end up. It has raised eyebrows among those concerned about freedom of information, who say that storing the documents in private archives restricts access and makes it easier for the former mayor to remove unwanted papers. Giuliani has argued that he made the agreement after concluding that municipal authorities might not be efficient or scrupulous enough in maintaining the records.

The AAP's Judy Platt said that even if the letter doesn't convince Bloomberg to nullify Giuliani's contract, she hopes it will at least inspire the city to oversee such deals more closely.

But Platt said the group had declined to sign off on a petition sponsored by the Gotham Center for New York City History because it supported a New York Times editorial that the AAP thinks was unfairly critical of book publishing. "The implication was that the publishers are somehow complicit in this," Platt said. "While there may be a publisher working on a Giuliani memoir, there are six other authors who are doing an unauthorized biography who would love to see those records."