Rahm gets nailed by BGA

You'll want to read the Chicago Tribune's article today about the Better Government Association (BGA) lawsuit against Rahm Emanuel and his use of his personal email account to handle City of Chiago official business.

The BGA went after Rahm and had to haul him into court to force him to admit what I will call an improper use of a personal email account for official government business. Now the BGA will get its hands on 2,700 emails that hadn't been available previously.

Did Rahm get his email handling skills from Hillary? Y' think?

Why is this important in Woodstock or McHenry County?

Several years ago (five? six? more?)  I was bothered by email replies from City of Woodstock officials who uses their personal email addresses for City of Woodstock business. How did that work?

If I sent an email to a City Councilman at his official City of Woodstock email address, I later received a reply from his personal email account. This happened more than once and with more than one Councilman.

The email to the City's email address must have been auto-forwarded to the Councilman and then, for his convenience (and I hoped only for his convenience), he would reply from his personal email service.

I raised this question with the Illinois Attorney General's Public Access Counselor (PAC), because I was concerned about the Illinois Open Records Act and whether his personal email would be available under a FOIA request. The PAC's reply was that it "would be better" for him to reply from the official City email address.

Even though I approached the City of Woodstock about this, nothing changed.

Watch this, the next time you email the Mayor or a City Councilman at his official City email address. When you receive your reply, note from what email address it is coming.

If it comes to you from a personal email address, do you wonder if that reply would be found and included upon a FOIA request?