TRUST 35 EAST WACKER DRIVE . SUITE 1450 . CHICAGO, IL 60601 0312-809-8080 June 22, 2018 Via E-mail: aggncinot?dlbettergOVArg Alejandra Cancino Reporter Better Government Association 223 W. Jackson Blvd, Ste 300 Chicago, IL 60606 Dear Ms. Cancino, This letter is in response to the Freedom of Information Act request received by the Chicago Infrastructure Trust on June 15, 2018 requesting: 1. All responses in their entirety t0 the ?Hare Express System Project Request for Proposals and Request for Qualifications, including but not necessarily limited to winning and non- winning proposals. 2. All reports, memorandums or any other documents that detail the criteria used to select the winning proposal for the 0 ?Hare Express System Project, including but not necessarily limited to evaluations of responses, policies, procedures and other such records that governed the review and selection of the winning proposal. 3. All reports, memorandums or any other documents that detail the criteria used to create the 0 ?Hare Express System Project. As to paragraphs 1-3, for available information regarding the OES Project, you may visit our website at The link will provide you with copies of the RFQ, the RFP, a list of respondents and a list of ?nalists. As to paragraph 1, please be advised 5 ILCS provides an exemption from disclosure for ?[p]proposals and bids for any contract, grant or agreement, including information which if it were disclosed would frustrate procurement or give an advantage to any person proposing to enter into a contractor agreement with the body, until an award or ?nal selection is made. Information prepared by or for the body in preparation of a bid solicitation shall be exempt until an award or ?nal selection is made.? The Boring Company and the City of Chicago have recently entered into the negotiating phase for the O?Hare Express System (OES) Project. Section of FOIA speci?cally exempts bids, proposal documents, evaluation criteria and evaluations until a ?nal contract is awarded. In this case, there has been no contract awarded for this project. Therefore, at this time the CIT is unable to provide any potentially responsive records. As to paragraphs 2 and 3, if you are seeking the RFP response evaluations, the evaluations are similarly protected under Please note bid evaluations are predecisional in nature and may also be protected under 5 ILCS In addition, because your request also asks for ?any other documents,? CIT is unable to discern what you are seeking and your request cannot be processed in its present form as it is overly broad, vague and burdensome. The FOIA provides in 5 ILCS 140/3 that requests for all records falling within a category shall be complied with unless compliance with the request would be unduly burdensome for the complying public body and there is no way to narrow the request and the burden on the public body outweighs the public interest in the information. Your FOIA request as it is currently written is vague and unduly burdensome to staff, resources, and its daily operations. Due to the broadness of the phrasing, the request could potentially include a myriad of documents that would be exempt from disclosure. As the Illinois Attorney General?s Public Access Counselor has noted (see 2017 PAC 47756, issued June 20, 2017), Illinois courts have held, request to inspect or copy must reasonably identify a public Chicago Tribune Co. v. Dept. of Financial and Professional Regulation, 2014 IL App (4th) 130427, par. 33. A FOIA request ?reasonably describes records if ?the agency is able to determine precisely what records are being requested.? v. Dept. ofJustice, 73 F.3d 386, 388 (DC. Cir. 1996) (quoting Yeager v. Drug. Enforcement Admin, 678 F.2d 315, 326 (DC. Cir. 1982)) Therefore, to the extent that you seek documents that have not been identi?ed and addressed in this response letter, it is necessary that your FOIA request be narrowed and clari?ed. If you would like further assistance in narrowing your request, please contact me and we will assist you. Otherwise, as explained above, we will be unable to ?irther respond to your request. If you wish to narrow your request, please submit a revised written request to our attention. CIT will take no further action or send you any further correspondence with regard to your request for ?any other documents? until it is narrowed in writing. If we do not receive your narrowed request within fourteen (14) calendar days of the date of this letter, your request for ?any other documents? will be denied. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 312-809-8080 or via email. Thank you. Sincerely, Patricia Domingue Freedom of Information Officer O FFICE O F M AYOR R AHM E MANUEL C ITY O F C H IC A G O June 22, 2018 Alejandra Cancino acancino@bettergov.org Dear Ms. Cancino: On behalf of the City of Chicago Office of the Mayor (“Mayor’s Office”), I am responding to your Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request received on June 15, 2018, which seeks: 1. All responses in their entirety to the O’Hare Express System Project Request for Proposals and Request for Qualifications, including but not necessarily limited to winning and non-winning proposals. 2. All reports, memorandums or any other documents that detail the criteria used to select the winning proposal for the O’Hare Express System Project, including but not necessarily limited to evaluations of responses, policies, procedures and other such records that governed the review and selection of the winning proposal. 3. All reports, memorandums or any other documents that detail the criteria used to create the O’Hare Express System Project. With respect parts 1- 3 of your request, please be advised that the records you seek are exempt from disclosure pursuant to Section 7(1)(h) of FOIA, which exempts: Proposals and bids for any contract, grant, or agreement, including information which if it were disclosed would frustrate procurement or give an advantage to any person proposing to enter into a contractor agreement with the body, until an award or final selection is made. Information prepared by or for the body in preparation of a bid solicitation shall be exempt until an award or final selection is made. 5 ILCS 140/7(1)(h). The Boring Company and the City of Chicago have recently entered into the negotiating phase for the O’Hare Express System (OES) Project. Section 7(1)(h) of FOIA specifically exempts bids, proposal documents, evaluation criteria and evaluations until a final contract is awarded. In this case, there has been no contract awarded for this RFP. Because of the ongoing competitive process, the public release of proposal materials could give an advantage to another applicant. For this reason, these materials are exempt from production under this section. Additionally, your request for “any other documents” is does not sufficiently identify the records you are seeking, and is therefore burdensome. Section 3(g) of FOIA provides that “[r]equests calling for all records falling within a category shall be complied with unless compliance with the request would be unduly burdensome for the complying public body and there is no way to narrow the request and the 121 NORTH LASALLE STREET, SUITE 500, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60602 burden on the public body outweighs the public interest in the information.” 5 ILCS 140/3(g). In order to comply with your request as written, this department would need to identify, procure and review an unknown quantity of records. Without direction from you as to which specific records you seek, such an endeavor would pose an undue burden on the operations of this department. As the Illinois Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor has noted (see 2017 PAC 47756, issued June 20, 2017), Illinois courts have held, “[a] request to inspect or copy must reasonably identify a public record[.]” Chicago Tribune Co. v. Dept. of Financial and Professional Regulation, 2014 IL App (4th) 130427, par. 33. A FOIA request “reasonably describes records if ‘the agency is able to determine precisely what records are being requested.’” Kowalczyk v. Dept. of Justice, 73 F.3d 386, 388 (D.C. Cir. 1996) (quoting Yeager v. Drug Enforcement Admin., 678 F.2d 315, 326 (D.C. Cir. 1982)). Therefore it is necessary that this portion of your FOIA request be narrowed and clarified. If you would like assistance in narrowing your request, please contact me, and I will assist you. Otherwise, for the reasons provided above, the Mayor’s Office is unable to respond to your FOIA request as currently drafted. If you agree to narrow your request, you must submit a revised written request to my attention. The Mayor’s Office will take no further action or send you any further correspondence unless and until your current request is narrowed in writing. If we do not receive your narrowed request within fourteen (14) calendar days of the date of this letter, your current request will be denied. In the event that we do not receive a narrowed request and your current FOIA request is therefore denied, you have the right to have a denial reviewed by the Public Access Counselor (PAC) at the Office of the Illinois Attorney General, 500 S. 2nd Street, Springfield, Illinois 62706, (877) 299-3642. You also have the right to seek judicial review of your denial by filing a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court. Sincerely, Shannon I. Leonard Freedom of Information Officer