Ex-Mayor Lori Lightfoot sued to keep a letter about the city treasurer secret from the Tribune. Will Brandon Johnson continue her fight?

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration is so far continuing a public records legal battle he inherited from predecessor Lori Lightfoot over a letter regarding alleged misconduct at the city treasurer’s office.

When the mayor was asked Wednesday whether he will drop or continue the city’s lawsuit against Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office for siding with the Chicago Tribune in a Freedom of Information Act dispute concerning City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, Johnson’s newly confirmed corporation counsel jumped in instead.

“Shall I start now the trial?” Mary Richardson-Lowry quipped in a post-City Council news conference. She went on: “We are continuing to evaluate our position with respect to that matter. So I’m hesitant to tell you exactly what our next steps are going to be, but we will continue to evaluate.”

Richardson-Lowry’s answer comes months after Lightfoot’s administration went to court to block the release of the letter, which touched on claims that Conyears-Ervin — a key Lightfoot ally — fired staffers for refusing to participate in what they described as illegal and unethical conduct. But a ruling in the ongoing FOIA dispute is expected early next month regarding the attorney general office’s motion to dismiss the city’s lawsuit on procedural grounds.

The Tribune last November won the right to a copy of the potentially revealing letter regarding the workplace misconduct claims. The attorney general office’s public access counselor rejected the argument from Lightfoot’s legal team that it should be kept secret, stating in a “binding opinion” that the city “improperly denied” the request for releasing the letter, which the city had received from a private attorney representing the fired employees.

Conyears-Ervin did not responded to a request for comment Wednesday. She has maintained the allegations of misconduct in her office are false, saying she fired the employees because she wanted to take the office in a different direction.

A spokesman for Raoul’s office declined to comment Wednesday, citing the pending legal case.

The Tribune sought to get the letter from the fired employees’ attorney through a series of Freedom of Information Act requests. The attorney general’s binding decision in November said the city’s refusal to provide it “violated the requirements of FOIA.”

Binding opinions have the force of law, and a public body has to comply or seek administrative review in circuit court within 35 days of the opinion being issued, which Lightfoot’s Law Department did. The case has been pending as Conyears-Ervin and her husband, West Side Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th, proved to be some of Lightfoot’s staunchest campaign surrogates up until she lost reelection in February. Conyears-Ervin and her husband endorsed Johnson in the April runoff.

Raoul was also a Johnson supporter in the mayoral race, backing him during the runoff campaign.

Conyears-Ervin was first elected city treasurer in 2019 alongside Lightfoot. The two clashed early on over the treasurer’s security detail being stripped but later developed an alliance that saw Lightfoot’s Law Department agreeing to pay $100,000 to settle whistleblower complaints by two former treasurer employees who alleged they were improperly fired. A former state representative, Conyears-Ervin ran unopposed this year for reelection and she is currently preparing a bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Danny Davis in 2024.

Tiffany Harper, the treasurer’s former chief of staff, previously alleged in an email to a city ethics officer that she had “no doubt that our terminations are related to our refusal to participate in the illegal and unethical conduct.” Harper did not elaborate in that email about her allegations or identify who might be the subject of her complaint.

Harper and Ashley Evans, the treasurer’s former chief impact officer, settled their complaints for $100,000, with the city giving each $41,000 and their attorney receiving $18,000. They were among four treasurer employees fired.

Tribune City Hall reporter Gregory Royal Pratt filed a series of requests under the state’s Freedom of Information Act seeking emails about the dispute. When denied the private attorney’s letter, Pratt appealed to the attorney general office’s public access counselor and last July won an initial nonbinding determination that stated the city should release the letter. But the city refused.

In September, Pratt asked the attorney general’s office for a binding decision because the city had “already shown its disregard for the AG’s nonbinding decision on this exact matter,” according to a copy of the reporter’s written request.

The city argued the letter from the fired workers’ attorney was part of privileged settlement negotiations and exempt under the Freedom of Information Act as well as prohibited by various courtroom rules of evidentiary and discovery in legal actions.

Siding with the Tribune, the attorney general’s office stated that the city’s arguments don’t apply and that the letter is not exempt from FOIA.

The attorney general’s office also tossed aside the city’s argument about evidentiary and discovery rules, saying those rules don’t apply in this matter and don’t overcome “the public’s statutory right to obtain information pursuant to FOIA.”

“Accordingly,” Raoul’s office concluded, the city “is hereby directed to take immediate and appropriate action to comply with this opinion by providing Mr. Pratt with a copy of the responsive letter.”

ayin@chicagotribune.com