The city of Chicago's Inspector General has gone to court to force the city government in neighboring Berwyn to turn over city records they believe are needed to further an investigation into whether a certain Chicago city employee has violated the city's residency policy.
On May 20, the Chicago Office of the Inspector General (OIG) filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court against Berwyn, a suburb which lies just to the west of Chicago.
According to the lawsuit, the OIG issued a subpoena last summer to Berwyn seeking copies of water bills for a home in the 3700 block of East Avenue in Berwyn. According to the lawsuit, Chicago OIG said the subpoena was issued under what it called its lawful authority as a home rule city under the Illinois state constitution and state law, to further its investigation into determining if a city employee had potentially violated Chicago city ordinance otherwise requiring them to live within Chicago's city limits.
However, the documents returned by Berwyn blacked out, or "redacted," the name of the water customer to whom the bills for municipal water service had been issued.
Allegedly in response to the OIG's requests, Berwyn city officials and attorneys told the Chicago OIG that Berwyn considered that information to be legally protected private information which the city of Berwyn could not disclose to anyone.
According to Chicago OIG's complaint, a Berwyn attorney allegedly told the Chicago OIG to "go get a Court Order."
The Chicago OIG asserted its office had subpoena power granted to it under law for such records to aid in its investigations. But the Berwyn attorney allegedly told the Chicago OIG that "the City of Chicago's subpoena has no power over the City of Berwyn."
According to the complaint, the Chicago OIG further obtained a "binding opinion" from the Illinois Attorney General's office that Berwyn's assertions concerning the privacy of such information was incorrect. In that opinion, the Illinois Attorney General's office said "public bodies cannot withhold the names of their residents, as identified on utility bills" under Illinois' Freedom of Information Act.
"Berwyn's conduct in this instance is indistinguishable from the denials deemed illegal by the Attorney General," the Chicago OIG wrote in its complaint. "In other words, even if OIG had requested the documents pursuant to FOIA (which it did not), Berwyn's refusal to provide them in unredacted form would still violate the law."
According to the complaint, Berwyn's attorney indicated in January that Berwyn would "call ... the week of January 29, 2024 to discuss a substantive response to the subpoena."
However, as of May 20 when the lawsuit was filed, the Chicago OIG had received any such "substantive response" to its inquiries and information demands, according to the complaint.
The Chicago OIG asked the court to order Berwyn to respond to the subpoena and supply the information sought by the OIG's office.
The complaint does not identify the Chicago city employee allegedly under investigation for potentially violating the city's residency policy.
The lawsuit was filed by attorneys Nathaniel K.S. Wackman, Bradley Snyder, Benjamin Berkman and Jessica Franklin, Special Assistant Corporation Counsel, of the Chicago OIG's office.