Mayor Lightfoot campaigned on a promise to make city government 'much more transparent,' but for more than a year has fought public records requests about racism and discrimination among city workers.
The City of Chicago broke the law in refusing a CBS 2 public records request about racism and discrimination among city workers.In other words, the city must release the records, or they could face penalties.Mayor Lori Lightfoot campaigned on transparency, with the slogan,"Bringing in the light."
Our quest for information started back in 2020, when a Black garbage truck driver named Heidi McGee got a text from a White supervisor containing the N word, infuriating McGee and her husband, who is also a Streets and Sanitation worker."There's a culture of similar things that happened to us, as well as others, and most definitely worse," said Martell McGee.
"This is a particularly egregious violation," said public records attorney Matt Topic, who said the city's refusal to turn over the requested records violated state law. As it turns out, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul's office agrees. After CBS 2 asked, the attorney general's public access counselor issued a binding opinion — which only happens about 10 times a year — stating that the city"violated the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.""I think it's very encouraging. It's a signal that this is very important information, and that the city's position was particularly unfounded," Topic said.
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