Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel released nearly 3,000 pages of emails from his personal account on Wednesday. The move was part of a settlement that the Better Government Association and Chicago Tribune reached with the city.
Approximately 30,000 city employees are banned from using private email accounts while on the job. Any email referencing work issues must be forwarded from the personal account to a work account so that it can be archived.
The mayor’s private email account will be reviewed every three months as part of the settlement. Any messages that reference city affairs will be saved and made available to the public. Other public employees who do not follow the policy will be disciplined, though it’s unclear how the city will enforce the policy.
“Use of private email accounts that hide the transaction of public business threatens to render meaningless the open records laws that allow citizens to hold their government accountable,” Better Government Association CEO Andy Shaw said in a statement. “The new city policy requiring public business to be conducted where it’s subject to public scrutiny is a sea change in transparency and consequently in good government.”
BGA lamented Emanuel’s failure to live up to the promise at the start of his first term in 2011 to have one of the most transparent administrations in history.
