April Fool! Emanuel Denies Own FOIA Request

" Ward Room blogger Edward McClelland often employs satire in this space. This is one of those times. Please read with satire in mind.

But now that April Fool’s Day is over, and the mayor is back in City Hall, he has announced that he is denying his own FOIA request.

“There is no way I can hold frank conversations and engage in the kind of freewheeling discussions with my staff that are necessary for good policymaking if I know that the content of those discussions will become public,” Emanuel said today. “That’s exactly what I told the Chicago Tribune when they asked for e-mails related to my decision to install speed cameras all over the city.”

In response to a FOIA request from the Tribune, Emanuel’s administration released e-mails in which all information was blacked out, except the sender and recipient.

“FOIA doesn’t allow for everything,” Emanuel told the Tribune’s David Kidwell. “Certain information, when my staff has given me unfiltered opinion, I need that as a chief executive and that doesn’t mean you get to sit at the table.”

Today, Emanuel said that he has no more right to information about himself than the press or the general public. "

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