Finance Committee — 08/04/2021 Page 21
liability report based on workers' comp, and slip and falls, and employee issues but the third area that we have
risk exposure is our lawsuits or pending lawsuits and | didn't realize that that was held separately by the Legal
office. | have never seen any reporting on those risks and the number of suits we have running in Legal. Now
| wrote a letter to the Budget Committee and you were cc'd on it Mr. Mayor today to ask a few questions about
it and then request if there was a report that they provided to me. | got a response back from Rick Dowd telling
me to this question is best answered by Legal and any Right-To-Know requests gets referred to Legal. | let
him know that | was confused by that because | was told to go to departments. But that also | had questions in
my e-mail and Legal isn't responsible for answering questions.
Well, tonight, while you're sitting in this meeting, Attorney Bolton puts out one of his punch in the face e-mails
that says, “the Legal Department represents the city and provides advice only to city officials and employees
regarding the city matters. Please do not ever advise anyone other than a city official or employee to contact
us with questions. Please know many, many Right-To-Know requests are not referred to the Legal
Department.” Well, obviously he's giving a reprimand to Rick Dowd who clearly didn't know it wasn't supposed
to be referred there and | think you're right to no training and understanding of what your departments are
supposed to do is unclear. | spoke to a department this week that said to me, of course, you know | have to
bring this through Legal. So | don't know what you're doing, but this e-mail - and | don't know if Attorney Bolton
is there but I'm sure his ego is - it fills a room no matter where he is. | think it's obnoxious to write this. Handle
that privately and train your people because they don't know. | forwarded it, the e-mail, to Attorney Bolton as a
Right-To-Know but then told the committee I'm asking questions and | feel the questions are yours to answer.
| wrote an e-mail to you maybe three weeks ago asking you to help me clarify what are the channels I'm
supposed to use to get information? | received nothing. These types of scolding e-mails from your legal office
are obnoxious. You really need a new Corporation Counsel. There's no - and | will tell you, | have called legal
offices around the State. | have worked with legal offices to get Right-To-Know information and
Attorneys...guess what you can call them and get...
Mayor Donchess
Ms. Ortolano we limit these...Ms. Ortolano. Sorry but we limit the public comment to 3 minutes and we’re way
over that right now. So could you just conclude, please?
Laurie Ortolano
Give me 30 more seconds because you didn't give me a warning like you usually do. So yes | can limit my
time and | will.
Mayor Donchess
Thirty seconds. Go ahead, 30 seconds.
Laurie Ortolano
Thank you. | will let you know that other legal offices around the State as well as the Attorney General's office,
the Department of Revenue legal office will take my phone call, work with me, answer questions, and help me
understand how data is stored and maintained in their facilities to fill a Right-To-Know request. Your Legal
office refuses to do that thereby driving up the cost not only for all taxpayers. It's obnoxious. You need to
dump Attorney Bolton and find somebody who wants to do that job as Corporation Counsel. Thank you.
Mayor Donchess
All right. Any other member of the public want to address the committee? If not, we're going to remarks by
Alderman. Any alderman wish to make remarks. Alderwoman Lu
REMARKS BY THE ALDERMEN
