BGA Forces Release Of Mayor Rahm Emanuel Private Emails, Garners Landmark Policy Shift

BGA reports:

As a result of a BGA investigation and legal action, The City of Chicago and Mayor Rahm Emanuel have agreed to release all of Emanuel's private emails related to city business—subject to any applicable legal exemptions—and institute a new policy that will ban city employees and officials from using their private email accounts to conduct city business.

The city's change in practices comes in response to Freedom of Information Act requests and lawsuits filed by the BGA, and separately by the Chicago Tribune, and follows more than a year of hard-fought litigation and rulings by two Cook County judges that public officials’ emails are not outside the scope of FOIA simply because they are on a private account.

"It's unfortunate that it took a lawsuit to produce the transparency we all deserve," said BGA President and CEO Andy Shaw. "But that said, this is a major step forward in the fight for transparency at City Hall."

The BGA will report on the content of the mayor's emails after receiving and reviewing them.

Excellent work by the BGA.