Finance Committee — 12/15/2021 Page 8
soon to bring in somebody who’s able to perform that task within the level of work that has to be done. We just
shouldn’t be paying what we’re paying for the services we’re getting out of that office.
I’m going to be putting a Right to Know for the bills and expenses that were incurred for this piece that I’m
dealing with right now but it wasn’t cheap for the city. It was entirely unnecessary. I’ve got three more suits in
the cue. I’m lining them up. I’m coming in and we’re going to keep going on this Right to Know stuff until we
start to get some compliance here. I'll tell you as long as Attorney Bolton is in that legal office, there will be no
compliance. He really is not capable of performing this job. Please don’t leave us in a situation here where
we’re paying for a Legal Department that just can’t perform...
Alderman Harriott-Gathright
You have 30 seconds.
Laurie Ortolano
... that it should be able to. Thank you.
Mayor Donchess
We certainly agree that the lawsuits are unnecessary. That we do agree on.
REMARKS BY THE ALDERMEN
Alderman O’Brien
Mr. Mayor | don’t know how to phrase this. | wonder where some people do they have any compassion? |
think you know that some of us as we get older stumble upon some medical issues and we try to heal and
everything else and we get clearances for doctors to come back to our particular chosen field. The thing is like
whenever somebody or any one of us — citizen, public official, wny do we have HIPPA laws? HIPPA laws are
to protect one’s medical type of situation in the general field out there.
Now Ill have you know Mr. Mayor as a firefighter | would treat people but | could not go home and even tell my
wife on exactly what | did. The respect to HIPPA, and the law, and everything else. So therefore in an open
format to discuss somebody’s medical situation, I’m very uncomfortable with that. It seems to almost fly in the
face of HIPPA. Maybe I’m wrong but there is a way. If anybody felt anything, I’m sure they could probably
bring it up to Human Resources or something else but to have it in the public format where there’s no
rebuttable | think is shameful and it reflects the character. There’s a right way to do it. I’m not judging whether
the person that spoke is correct or not. The thing is have compassion and do it appropriately. That was one of
the most disappointing things | saw. Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Alderman Klee
Thank you Mr. Mayor. I'd like to echo the comments from my colleague Alderman O’Brien. | can tell you that
in the State House if someone contracts COVID, they don’t even let us know who it was unless that person
shares it publicly because of HIPPA laws. We don’t go around advertising it and putting it out on social media
and so on. You can say that you don’t like how someone is doing their work but to bring up their medical
issues, | think it’s a heinous act.
Putting that aside, last night | did not comment about something that one of my constituents brought to me. He
had Vision come and do his assessment. He wanted to let the public know that it went quite well. They came
in, they did their job. He said they were there probably 10 to 15 minutes because they just had the card and
just double checked each of the rooms. He said they came in masked. They showed him their vaccination
card. They had perfect ID — exactly what the city told him, and he was quite pleased and he recommends that
people not be so afraid and not listen to the scare tactics that they’re hearing on social media. | just wanted to
