Not to put pressure on the Tribune‘s lawyers, but if we’re ever going to get to the bottom of the scandal known as Supesgate, they’ll have to win their Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against Mayor Emanuel’s administration.
In Supesgate, the mayor’s handpicked school board approved a $20.5 million, no-bid principal-training contract with Supes Academy, a company that was kicking back 10 percent of the deal to Barbara Byrd-Bennett, the mayor’s handpicked schools CEO.
On May 8, Chloe Rasmus, the mayor’s FOIA officer, sent Ruthhart a log that revealed dozens of e-mails had been sent back and forth over Supes.
In addition, there’s an e-mail sent by Alicia Winckler—a top CPS aide—entitled “City Hall questions on SUPES.” It was sent to various CPS officials.
On May 28, the Emanuel administration sent Ruthhart 19 heavily redacted e-mail chains. There were so many redactions it was impossible to determine who was saying what to whom. Moreover, the redactions were made with some sort of white material that blended in with the page, so it was hard to even tell how many e-mails had been redacted.
In the last few weeks, the mayor did independently release an e-mail requested by Ruthhart.
