It looks like Chicago residents won’t get a chance to see which of their neighbors were under consideration for two vacant alderman spots before Mayor Richard M. Daley gives his recommendations to the City Council tomorrow.
Jennifer Hoyle, spokeswoman for the city’s law department, said information about the candidates would likely be available by the end of the week.
After the mayor invited applications from the general public, the Chicago Current and other news organizations requested the list of candidates under the state’s Freedom of Information Act. Read more...
It seems that the city isn't yet ready to comply with a request from Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office.
The request, written in a memo to Mayor Richard M. Daley's office last Friday,
orders the city to release the names of applicants under consideration for two open aldermanic seats. City officials previously denied Freedom of Information requests for the applicants' names from the Current and other news organizations.
Daley is expected to recommend his picks on Wednesday, but so far, I've had no luck getting an advance look at who he's considering.
City officials have said it would be an invasion of privacy and perhaps jeopardize the jobs of applicants if it released their names. But Madigan's office said the applicants' right to privacy does not outweigh the public's right to know who might represent the city's 1st and 29th wards.
Read more...
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office has ordered Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley to release records of applicants for the city’s two vacant alderman positions.
Earlier this week, the city denied a Freedom of Information request from the Chicago Current seeking the names of candidates who nominated themselves for the open 1st and 29th Ward alderman positions.
The city’s law department said doing so would violate the applicants’ right to privacy, potentially jeopardizing their current jobs. Read more...
Forest Lombaer, a City of Chicago lawyer, probably didn't anticipate much in the way of fireworks when he appeared before the City Council's Finance Committee this morning to talk about a $1.5 billion bond issue to fund the O'Hare International Airport modernization program.
But the discussion soon became a heated examination of whether the city does enough to give lucrative bond business to minority law firms, with aldermen stopping just shy of accusing Lombaer of racism.
Lombaer told aldermen that bond buyers typically make decisions based on the reputation of the bond firm that's provided advice on the deal; He added that minority law firms sometimes don't have the same reputation as other firms in that area. Read more...
