Getting around the FOIA isn’t as easy as it looks. The law requires that public officials share records generated by public bodies. In fact, transparency is one of those good-government principles that almost all elected officials feel compelled to endorse, even if it’s the last thing they actually want to do.
In his case, Mayor Emanuel boasts of running “the most open, accountable, and transparent government Chicago has ever seen.”
Meanwhile he’s invented one of the great FOIA dodges of all time: I’d give you the stuff you want, but we threw it out.
That’s what has emerged from the twists and turns of a FOIA request made in February 2012 by a north-side public school parent named Glenn Krell.