Governor Rauner’s calendar released

 

See highlighted text—this issue is not over yet.

 

Faced with a lawsuit from Illinois Times and three opinions from the state attorney general, Gov. Bruce Rauner has released his appointment calendar.
Download Rauner's calendar releases here and here.
The release today that came via Brown, Hay and Stephens, the Springfield law firm that is representing the governor in the lawsuit filed by the newspaper, details the governor’s meetings held last April, when he left a Holocaust remembrance ceremony early and did not respond when Illinois Times asked where he had gone. The governor later told the State Journal-Register that he had left the ceremony to meet with House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, and Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago. That meeting is memorialized as “leader meeting” in the calendar released today.
The calendar released by the governor includes redacted telephone numbers and other personal information that is exempt from disclosure under state law. But names of people who met with the governor are included. The governor had previously argued that releasing names could reveal his thought processes or, in the case of lawyers, legal strategies.
The attorney general’s office has issued three opinions, one to Illinois Times, another to the Chicago Reader and a third to the Associated Press, stating that the governor’s calendar is a public record under the state Freedom of Information Act.
In a letter to attorneys for Illinois Times, Don Tracy, a Springfield lawyer who defended the lawsuit for the governor’s office, called the newspaper’s lawsuit “flawed” and “improper,” and he blamed staff writer Bruce Rushton for the delay in making the calendar public. In the letter, Tracy notes that the lawsuit was filed the day after the attorney general issued an opinion stating the calendar must be disclosed. Tracy says the governor’s office hadn’t indicated whether it would comply with the attorney general’s opinion when the lawsuit was filed. He also writes that the governor didn’t know whether the lawsuit aimed at disclosure “pre-empted” the attorney general’s opinion that the document should be released.
“We, therefore, advised the governor’s office to delay the production of any documents in order to fully respond to the defects in Mr. Rushton’s improper lawsuit, and have time to determine whether such lawsuit, in effect, pre-empted (the attorney general’s opinion),” Tracy writes. “It is unfortunate that due to Mr. Rushton’s rush to court, the release of the calendar to him and other media outlets has been delayed.”
Don Craven, attorney for Illinois Times and Rushton, rejected the notion that Rushton was responsible for any delay in releasing the calendar.
“The governor could have released it upon request, as required by law, or at any time during this process,” Craven said. “I look forward to inquiring of Gov. Rauner as we pursue our claims for civil penalties and attorney’s fees how Mr. Rushton delayed the release of this record.”
Download the letter from Don Tracy here.

Above is from:  http://illinoistimes.com/article-16659-rauner-releases-calendar.html