Cook County sued over Freedom of Information Act
From Sunshine Review
July 16, 2009 The Better Government Association filed suit against Cook County for denying a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.[1]
[edit] The request
The Better Government Association submitted a FOIA request to Cook County in May 2009, requesting copies of County Board President Todd Stroger's cell phone records, as well as those of his cousin and former CFO Donna Dunnings, former employee Tony Cole and Communications Director Eugene Mullins. The group wanted the records from November 2008 to April 2009.
They submitted the request after several political missteps, such as Stroger hiring and promoting Cole, an ex-convict.
In June, Stroger and Gregg Goslin signed a pledge to honor the Freedom of Information Act.
[edit] The denial
Cook County denied the request claiming that providing them would be "burdensome" and that the records for two of the four individuals were off-limits due to "ongoing investigation," Chicago Now reported.
The former employee, Cole, was fired in early April for allegedly failing to disclose his criminal history on a job application, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.[2]
"This was one of the most tawdry embarrassing and scandalous episodes of the Stroger administration — the hiring of an ex-convict, promotions twice to different jobs in the county — even after he’s bailed out of jail by the CFO," Andy Shaw, the BGA’s executive director, said.
"If we were asking for records for the 1920s, I could see that" it would be burdensome, Shaw said. "But this is 2009, the computer age, and it’s easy to access the records."
And since the BGA is asking for phone records with the times, dates and length of calls — not conversations — it shouldn’t interfere with any criminal investigations, Shaw says.
Stroger and his counsel have 30 days to respond to the suit.[2]
[edit] External links
- Cook County website
- Office of the President, Todd Stroger website
- Better Government Association website
[edit] References
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