Chicago Office Of The Mayor RTO Return to Office Communications 2023

Thank you for your FOIA request to the City of Chicago Office of the Mayor. Your FOIA request has been submitted and is being processed. Your reference number for tracking purposes is: F062415-120323. Track and view responses at Public Records Center.

You have requested the following records: To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act., I hereby request the following records:

Email messages and message contents with the keywords "RTO" or "Return to Office" in the email message subject or message body within the last calendar year.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Brandon Galbraith

Upload documents directly: https://www.muckrock.com/

The City of Chicago Office of the Mayor responds to all public records requests in accordance with the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 ILCS 140/1 et seq. If further time is needed to assemble and copy all documents responsive to your FOIA request, we will contact you with a time estimate and a request to extend.

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RE: PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST Reference #F062415-120323 This correspondence is in response to the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA") request received by the City of Chicago Office of the Mayor on December 03, 2023. Y Your request does not sufficiently identify the records you are seeking and is therefore burdensome. Section 3(g) of FOIA provides that “[r] equests calling for all records falling within a category shall be complied with unless compliance with the request would be unduly burdensome for the complying public body and there is no way to narrow the request and the burden on the public body outweighs the public interest in the information.” 5 ILCS 140/3(g). In order to comply with your request as written, this department would need to identify, procure and review an unknown quantity of records. Without direction from you as to which specific records you seek, such an endeavor would pose an undue burden on the operations of this department. As the Illinois Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor has noted (see 2017 PAC 47756, issued June 20, 2017), Illinois courts have held, “[a] request to inspect or copy must reasonably identify a public record[.]” Chicago Tribune Co. v. Dept. of Financial and Professional Regulation, 2014 IL App (4th) 130427, par. 33. A FOIA request “reasonably describes records if ‘the agency is able to determine precisely what records are being requested.’” Kowalczyk v. Dept. of Justice, 73 F.3d 386, 388 (D.C. Cir. 1996) (quoting Yeager v. Drug Enforcement Admin., 678 F.2d 315, 326 (D.C. Cir. 1982)). All categorical request (which is to say, requests for all records described by a set of criteria, as opposed to requests for specified and discrete records) require 1) custodians 2) keywords and 3) a timeframe to effectuate an effective search. Your request lacks custodians, and as such, this office is unable to formulate an initial search for potentially responsive records.  It is necessary that your FOIA request be narrowed and clarified: please specify custodians by name or emails address.    If you would like assistance in narrowing your request, please contact me, and I will assist you.  Otherwise, for the reasons provided above, Office of the Mayor is unable to respond to your FOIA request as currently drafted. If you agree to narrow your request, you must submit a revised written request to my attention. Office of the Mayor will take no further action or send you any further correspondence unless and until your current request is narrowed in writing. In the event that we do not receive a narrowed request and your current FOIA request is therefore denied, you have the right to have a denial reviewed by the Public Access Counselor (PAC) at the Office of the Illinois Attorney General, 500 S. 2nd Street, Springfield, Illinois 62701, (877) 299-3642. You also have the right to seek judicial review of your denial by filing a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court. Sincerely, Olivia R. Henry Acting FOIA Officer Mayor's Office