IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT, CHANCERY DIVISION BETTER GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION Plaintiff, No. 15 CH 15674 v. Hon. Sophia H. Hall CITY OF CHICAGO OFFICE, Defendant. NOTICE OF PRODUCTION OF REQUESTED RECORDS The City of Chicago (?City?) Mayor?s Of?ce, by and through its undersigned counsel, hereby respectfully informs the Court that on December 21, 2016, the City produced to the Better Government Association the records that are responsive to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act request underlying this lawsuit. As this Court is aware, the September 14, 2015 FOIA request sought email communications from private, non-City email accounts. In particular, the BGA requested ?[t]he complete contents of any email server of any kind that is used by Mayor?s Of?ce employees to discuss public business, excluding the City?s of?cial email server The BGA also requested ?[a]ll emails of Rahm Emanuel? and two former City employees ?discussing public business that reside on any email accounts other than ?@cityofchicago.org.? This would include, for example, personal Gmail, Yahoo, or other commercially available accounts, as well as emails on any privately maintained email systems.? The parties have a. dispute concerning Whether emails on private accounts are public records subject to FOIA. The City?s position, which is grounded in the plain language of FOIA as well as decisions of the Illinois Appellate Court including City of Champaign V. Madigan, 2013 IL App (4th) 120662, is that communications on the private or other non-City email accounts of City employees and of?cials are not public records Within the meaning of FOIA, that the City has no duty to locate and search private and other non-City email accounts for purposes of responding to FOIA requests, and, indeed, that such an endeavor would constitute an unreasonable and unprecedented invasion of privacy of the City?s current and former employees and of?cials. Moreover, FOIA includes no mechanism for the City to access the private and other non-City email accounts of its current employees, much less its former employees. In the interests of resolving this litigation, Mayor Emanuel has decided to provide the City all emails on the Mayor?s non-City email accounts that pertain to the transaction of City business. On the Mayor?s instructions, his personal counsel has reviewed and provided to the City, for review and production in response to this and future FOIA requests, all emails stored on the Mayor?s non-City accounts that pertain to the transaction of City business, including without limitation all emails that discuss actual or contemplated City operations, policies, personnel, contracting or expenditures. The City?s lawyers have reviewed those emails, determined which are responsive to the FOIA request, and produced the responsive emails to the BGA, after withholding or redacting all information that is exempt under Section 7 of FOIA. Moreover, going forward, the emails from the Mayor?s non?City accounts that are produced by the Mayor (after review by his personal counsel) will be included in the universe of documents that are routinely searched in response to FOIA requests submitted to the City of Chicago Mayor?s Of?ce. At least quarterly, the Mayor and his personal counsel will review all emails on the Mayor?s non-City accounts and provide to the City any emails that pertain to the transaction of City business, using the standard set forth in the above paragraph. These, too, will be included in the documents that are routinely searched in response to FOIA requests. The City also intends to adopt and promulgate to all City employees and of?cials a written policy prohibiting employees and of?cials from using their private or other non-City email accounts for the transaction of public business. This policy will also require that, if an employee or of?cial receives an email pertaining to the transaction of City business on a non?City email account, the employee or official must forward the email to the City email account of the employee or of?cial. A failure to comply with the written policy may subject the employee or of?cial to discipline. In light of the above-described developments, the parties have entered into a settlement agreement pursuant to which they have agreed to execute the documents necessary and take any additional actions needed to dismiss this 3 lawsuit. The parties acknow1edge that this settlement does not constitute a waiver of the right to challenge the City?s decision to withhold information responsive to the FOIA request as exempt under Section '7 of FOIA, or of the right to assert that emails stored on the non-City accounts of City employees other than the Mayor are subject to disclosure under FOIA. Similarly, the parties acknowledge that the settlement does not constitute a waiver of the City?s right to deny other FOIA requests that are unduly burdensome as de?ned by FOIA, or to assert in response to the FOIA request at issue here and other FOIA requests and related litigation that emails stored on the non-City accounts of City employees other than the Mayor are not public records and not subject to disclosure under FOIA. In fact, the City intends to continue to protect the privacy of its current and former employees by maintaining its position in other, unrelated litigation that emails stored on non-City accounts of those employees are not subject to disclosure under FOIA. Dated: December 21, 2016 Respectfully submitted, STEPHEN R. PATTON Corporatiu, Counsel of the City of Chicago JANE ELINCR NOTZ First Assistant Corporation Counsel AMBER ACHILLES RITTER Chief Assistant Corporation Counsel City of Chicago 121 N. LaSalle Street Chicago, IL 60602 Telephone: (312) 7 44-0220 4 Richard J. Prendergast Michael T. Layden Brian C. Prendergast RICHARD J. PRENDERGAST, LTD. 111 W. Washington St, Suite 1100 Chicago, IL 60602 IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS CIVIL DEPARTMENT, CHAN CERY DIVISION BETTER GOVERNMENT ASSOCLATION, Plaintiff, 3 {1:37 v. 3 Case No. 15 CH 15674 if f' CITY OF OFFICE, Defendant. NOTICE OF FILING To: Matthew Topic LOEVY LOEVY 312 N. May St., Suite 100 Chicago, Illinois 60607 PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that on Wednesday, December 21, 2016, I caused to be filed with the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, County Department, Chancery Division, Certificate of Service, a copy of which is hereby served upon you. 1244 Richard J. Prendergast, Esq. Michael T. Layden, Esq. RICHARD J. PRENDERGAST, LTD. 1381) 111 W. Washington St., Suite 1100 Chicago, Illinois 60602 (312) 641-0881 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE Richard J. Prendergast, an attorney, certifies that he caused a c0py of the foregoing Notice of Production of Requested Records to be served upon the aforementioned by E-Mail and Messenger Delivery, on this 21St day of December, 2016. Smimtus PRENDERGAST D-IICHAEL T. LAYDEN DEIRDRE A. l?hx?IAN COLLIN M. DAVID J. RIVEIJJ RI .1, ATTORNEYS AT LAW 111 WEST STREET. SUITE 1100 CHICAGO. ILLINOIS 60602 (31:2) 641-0881 FAX (312) 641-3562 December 21, 2016 VIA MESSENGER DELIVERY Honorable Sophia H. Hall Richard J. Daley Center 50 W. Washington St., Room 2301 Chicago, Illinois 60602 Re: Better Government Association v. City of Chicago Mayor?s Of?ce, 15 CH 15674 Dear Judge Hall: The enclosed Notice of Production of Requested Records was ?led today with the Clerk of Circuit Court. Enclosure cc: Service List Respectfully submitted, 7W7 Richard J. Prendergast SERVICE LIST Matthew Topic LOEVY LOEVY 312 N. May St., Suite 100 Chicago, Illinois 60607 (312) 243?5920 matt@10evy.corn Caroline Hirst caroline@loevy.com (do not send hard copies except for briefs for which they would be required to provide the courtesy copies (ie, our responses to any of our motions))