Chicago – Mayor Brandon Johnson is refusing to disclose how much his security detail is costing taxpayers, including the extra costs to go to events … in a wild twist, the Chicago Police say they don’t have overtime records or payroll records of their employees.
BTW, we clearly stated numerous times we are not seeking any information that would jeopardize the Mayor’s safety. We want to know how much, how often, how many, and when … easy questions nothing about strategy or tactics.
Since the Mayor wants to defund the police, we figure the public has a right to know how much of the police budget he uses for his personal and family security detail.
“Provide a list or records related to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s security detail and terrorism detail assigned to the Chosen Few Picnic & Festival 2023 @ Jackson Park 63rd Street and Hayes Drive, Saturday, July 8, 2023 … We are not seeking any documents that would compromise the mayors’ safety or any officers safety. We are seeking the costs, manpower, rank, equipment deployed, and time that was put into going to this event, including overtime hours paid.
john kugler
312-203-1534
July 25, 2023
RE: NOTICE OF RESPONSE TO FOIA REQUEST
FOIA FILE NO.: P860167
Your request is denied.
Brandon Johnson is Chicago’s Next Mayor. Here’s Where He Stands on Government Transparency and Ethics
1. Do you agree that FOIA violations are a threat to democracy and to the proper functioning of City government?
Yes. Open access to information and open government are essential to our democracy. The role of the press, in particular, is “to serve the governed, not the governors,” and FOIA requests by media outlets are key to providing access to information for the general public. Many requests, however, are made by non-journalists, which makes engaging in the process an act of engaging in democracy. FOIA violations threaten democracy and erode trust between government and individuals who have elected “governors” to serve. And as we have seen in Chicago, with more than 100 lawsuits filed against the Lightfoot administration, the pursuit of information becomes more of a story than the information itself.
