Mayor Steve Hagerty Requests 'Official Misconduct' Investigation

EVANSTON, IL — Mayor Steve Hagerty last week asked the Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart to open a criminal investigation into the City Council, city staff and outside attorneys. Hagerty wants the sheriff to figure out who leaked materials from a July 8 closed-door City Council meeting where aldermen discussed the results of a probe into a complaint that City Clerk Devon Reid had created an unhealthy work environment in his office. The investigation found Reid also retaliated against lawyers for the city prior to filing a lawsuit alleging city attorneys violated the Illinois Freedom of Information Act by withholding from his office footage from body-worn police cameras and correspondence with the city's bond counsel.

Evanston Patch was one of multiple members of the media to receive materials from the executive session, which were published in their entirety by the website Evanston Leads. According to WGN-TV, which first reported the letter, the leaked documents contain "embarrassing content of a sexual nature — including transcripts of recordings in which inappropriate sexual conduct was discussed."

However, the records provided to Patch and published by Evanston Leads do not contain such transcripts, and the mayor previously asserted at a public City Council meeting that no outside attorneys produced transcripts of intimate, private conversations. Evanston Patch could not independently verify the content of the WGN report Tuesday, which is not substantiated by the mayor's letter. Hagerty did not respond to a request for a copy of his correspondence with the sheriff, which he reportedly told the television station would "speak for itself."

Further, a copy of Hagerty's letter to Dart indicates the mayor made several ambiguous legal claims about which he has so far declined to provide any clarification. (Should he decide to do so, it will be included below.)

The release of the executive session packet was "an extraordinary act of misconduct," Hagerty told the sheriff. "I have reason to believe that packet was released by an individual Alderman acting without the authorization of the City Council. If so, such action qualifies as Official Misconduct under the Illinois Official Misconduct Act."

Although there is no act by that name, "official misconduct" is defined in the Illinois Criminal Code as a class 3 felony. The law says it is committed when any public official or employee who "intentionally or recklessly fails to perform any mandatory duty," "knowingly performs an act which [s/he] knows [s/he] is forbidden by law to perform," "performs an act in excess of his [or her] lawful authority" or asks for or accepts an unauthorized payment.

But Patch was unable to identify, and Hagerty declined to specify, what law the mayor believes forbids the release of the materials in question. Leaking the contents of closed session meetings contravenes Evanston City Council rules, but — as long as verbatim recordings are not released — discussing the content of the confidential meetings is not, in itself, a violation of state law, according to Evanston City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz.

Reid is the city's official keeper of records and was the city's lone FOIA officer until he filed suit in May against Bobkiewicz, Corporation Counsel Michelle Masoncup and the city in Cook County Circuit Court.

Following his lawsuit, the City Council voted to bypass his office by appointing new officers to handle all requests for police and legal department records. (After proclaiming, "Shame on this Council," Reid walked out of the May 28 meeting following a 5-3 vote to transfer FOIA responsibilities away from him.)

With regard to the mayor's allegations of potential "eavesdropping," the city clerk claims he accidentally failed to stop an audio recording on his laptop following an April 2018 closed-session meeting of the City Council. He said it recorded 111 hours of his personal life and a private discussion captured 96 hours into the recording contained an intimate conversation.

A year later, an employee tasked with producing minutes of the meeting shared a copy of the full audio file with city staff, and the tape was cited as evidence that Reid had violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act and sexually harassed the staffer.

All three complaints about Reid — one from a staff member he allegedly had sought to replace and two from employees in the law department alleging he engaged in "hostile debates" about "FOIA matters" — were filed on April 26, city records show.

In response, the city retained the law firm Robbins Schwartz, which has previously provided legal assistance with human resources matters — including representing former city attorney Grant Farrar when he and Bobkiewicz faced a federal racial discrimination lawsuit that resulted in a settlement worth more than half a million dollars.

According to the city's response to a public records request, Robbins Schwartz was paid more than $40,000 in April and May alone to investigate the city clerk. An attorney for the city told Patch the legal work was done without any engagement letter or contract. Hagerty has not responded to a request for an explanation as to how and whether aldermen authorized such an expenditure.

The Robbins Schwartz investigation found two of the three complaints that had been filed against Reid three days before his attorney send a letter to city attorneys demanding the city comply with the clerk's interpretation of FOIA law as it pertains to body-worn camera and attorney-client privileged communications were valid.

At the July 8 executive session City Council meeting, aldermen considered sending a letter to the Cook County State's Attorney's Office suggesting that Reid was suspected of criminal wrongdoing. The state's attorney's office confirmed the letter was never sent.

Hagerty disclosed the results of the investigation a few days before the City Council's July 15 meeting when he asked aldermen to censure Reid. Aldermen voted 5-4 to table the symbolic motion, which can still be reconsidered or adopted at any future meeting.

The mayor's letter also noted that on July 17, two days after the meeting, Reid was arrested on what the mayor described as an "unrelated warrant for failure to appear" in Will County court in connection with a citation for a suspended license plate registration. Evanston police were informed of the warrant and arrested Reid as the clerk met with the chief of police in a scheduled meeting. According to city staff, there are no records of how police became aware of the warrant, which was issued on April 3, according to Will County Clerk of Court records.

"Given the likelihood that Official Misconduct occurred and that the Clerk was recently arrested by the [Evanston Police Department], I feel strongly that an outside investigation by your Office should be undertaken," Hagerty said, identifying himself, Robbins Schwartz, the city's nine aldermen, the city manager and seven members of Bobkiewicz's senior staff as the only people with access to the July 8 agenda materials.

"I envision this investigation would include analyzing meta data from all retrieved documents, interviewing, as appropriate, those granted access to the documents, and applying other investigative techniques, as appropriate, to uncover who committed this criminal misconduct," Hagerty said. (If the mayor provides any clarification as to how he believes leaking a confidential meeting agenda constitutes the criminal offense of official misconduct, it will be added here.)

Coincidentally, during the same month the city began its investigation into allegations Reid violated the city's policy against an unhealthy work environment, Hagerty, who owns a disaster management consultancy, rehired former Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long in the wake of Long's resignation from the federal agency in February amid a misconduct investigation.

The inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security informed Long that he was violating the law by misusing government resources when he regularly left FEMA headquarters on Thursdays to drive 400 miles each way in a government vehicle to his North Carolina home, according to the Wall Street Journal. A heavily redacted version of the DHS inspector general's report obtained by the Washington Post shows unauthorized transportation by Long — who has not been criminally charged and was subsequently hired as "executive chairman" of Hagerty's firm — was found to have cost taxpayers more than $150,000.

Related:

• City Council Considers Censure Of Clerk Over Staff Complaints
• Mayor Proposes Bypassing City Clerk With Appointed FOIA Officers
• Evanston City Clerk Sues City Attorney, City Manager Over FOIA
• Emails, Police Report Detail Evanston City Hall 'Witch Hunt'