Last week’s New Year’s Eve release of thousands of email messages between top Chicago administration staffers in response to multiple news organizations’ Freedom of Information Act requests provides an unprecedented look into the workings of the top levels of an active Chicago mayoral operation. The messages, related to the Laquan McDonald shooting, illustrate the extensive authority the mayoral press operation has within city government.

WTTW’s Chicago Tonight has provided an excellent reference to the messages released, and a volunteer group, led by data analyst Steven Vance, has created a catalogue of each email message in the FOIA dump.

While the huge volume of email communication provides insight into how Mayor Emanuel’s office operates, it is far from a complete picture. There are likely many other related policy discussions elsewhere, either in email, on the phone or in person. Indeed, several message chains end with “please call me”, suggesting many decisions were made offline.

Reviewing the email trove, other news organizations have reported that Scott Ando and the Independent Police Review Authority coordinated closely with the Mayor’s office, that the McDonald family attorney threatened to reveal evidence of a “cover up” if there was no settlement and that the release of the McDonald video produced an “all hands on deck” response from Mayoral staff. There are likely to be more reports stemming from the email dump.

Early in my career, I served on personal staff for a pair of Cabinet Secretaries during the Clinton Administration. While these kinds of communications are familiar to me, a few things stand out.

Primarily, the communications between Emanuel staffers are extremely disciplined and process-oriented. There’s little personal talk, or references the usual familiarities that litter email between people in constant communication. Especially after the release of the McDonald video, when things are moving quickly, the team remains highly focused on the facts as they understand them and oriented towards delivering the message of the day.

This sort of message and process focus is no small feat, especially when so many average citizens are vilifying your boss on the outside. It is natural for even small challenges to the goal to come up (e.g. someone asking, “Is this the right thing to do?”), but the Emanuel team consistently seems to have its eye on the ball: Do everything possible to ensure Team Emanuel’s message wins the day.

After the release of the McDonald shooting video, the Emanuel team seems taken aback at the virulence of the protests and the extent of the national response to the video. At one point, Communications Director Kelley Quinn says about a relatively tame December 1 New York Times Editorial suggesting Emanuel has lost credibility, “Well, I knew it'd be bad but this is ridiculous.”

To ensure message consistency, the emails show the Emanuel press team to be in regular, close communication with other city agencies, including the heads of communications from the Police Department, Chicago Public Schools and the Independent Police Review Authority. While it’s not surprising that former IPRA Executive Director Scott Ando and Chief of Staff Larry Merritt were in contact with the Mayor’s communications team on an issue that involved them, the level of guidance they received is surprising. Rather than setting an independent communications strategy for IRPA, on multiple occasions Ando and Merritt checked with Mayoral staff to see if they should even respond to press requests for interviews and for guidance on specific reporter requests.

In April, Mayoral Deputy Communications Director Adam Collins writes, “I found out a bit ago that IPRA's PIO talked to Monica [Davey from New York Times] about the structure of IPRA and how they operate without checking in with me (and despite the fact I had already reached out to coordinate earlier in the day).”

Some other observations from the New Year’s Eve FOIA dump:

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  Prior to the video release, there was a great deal of discussion between the press office and Law Department about how to honor FOIA requests. While freelancer Jamie Kalven was moving for the video release in court, Sun Times columnist Laura Washington and Tribune crime reporter Jeremy Gorner were pressing Emanuel staff for details on the circumstances surrounding the McDonald video and shooting as early as January 2015.

  
  


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  A few local politicians are referenced as clear friends of the Mayor’s office in attempts to influence reporters: Ald. Will Burns (4), Ald. George Cardenas(12), Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) and Ald. Carrie Austin (34) as well as State Senator Kwame Raoul. Austin at one point goes so far as to run proposed press release language by Mayoral staff.

  
  


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  Early every morning Mayor Emanuel receives an email with top press issues of the day and suggested talking points. While not unusual, this sort of message guidance is not typical. Many top politicos resist a “message of the day”, preferring to speak more extemporaneously. Clearly not Emanuel. Anyone who has watched Emanuel’s press conferences can see evidence of his strong message discipline.

  
  


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  Mayoral communications staff seem to pay much closer attention to television reporting than other outlets. The emails suggest they closely monitor morning and evening broadcasts and respond with much more urgency to TV than to a print or digital media request.

  
  


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  Mayoral staff put an enormous amount of energy into the December 2 Politico Q&A with Mike Allen, clearly thinking the event would be an opportunity to shape national thinking. Instead the event was overtaken by Emanuel’s anger over Allen revealing his Cuba holiday vacation plans.

  
  


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  Deputy Mayor Ken Bennett and Mayoral Deputy Chief of Staff Vance Henry seem to be the point persons to gather information on protestors and organizers.

  
  


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  When protests really began to roll, Vance Henry, the Office of Emergency Management and Communications and other Mayoral staffers attempted to track the when and where of every protest. One email chain on December 7 with Dep. Chief Operating Officer Lisa Laws seems to suggest she was monitoring the protests using city surveillance cameras at the OEMC control room.

  
  

Elections attorney Perry Abbasi, representing an objector to State Rep. LaShawn Ford’s ballot petition to run for 29th Ward Committeeman, says the Chicago Board of Elections will remove Ford from the Committeeman ballot when it meets on Tuesday. Abbasi, who is representing long-time West Side operative Tommy Simmons in the objection, and is paid by Ald. Chris Taliaferro, says a Board of Elections Administrator shared a draft of his report on the Simmons objection, and will sustain it.

Ford turned in 2,229 signatures, but after Simmons’ objection only about 404 were sustained, says to Abbasi. 759 are needed to stay on the ballot. Ford could file a “Rule 20” request to appeal the ruling directly to the Board of Elections, but as of Friday afternoon he had not yet done so.

Ford also filed an objection to Taliaferro’s Committeeman ballot petition, but Abbasi reports the Board of Elections did not sustain enough objected signatures to knock Taliaferro off the ballot.

Ford says he’ll be talking with his attorney, Mike Kasper, to decide whether or not he’ll be filing a Rule 20 before Tuesday’s Board of Elections hearing. “I focused on making sure I had my State Rep. stuff and I relied on someone else to get my Committeeman signatures. I think he screwed me.”

If the Board of Elections removes Ford from the ballot and keeps Taliaferro on, Taliaferro will run unopposed for 29th Ward Democratic Committeeman. Former 29th Ward Ald. Deborah Graham, the incumbent, did not file for reelection.

Ald. Michele Smith will not be running for reelection as 43rd Ward Democratic Committeeman, according to a statement her office provided to Aldertrack last week. Instead she will be supporting Lucy Moog, a former Congressional staffer for Mayor Rahm Emanuel and wife of successful internet entrepreneur Matt Moog.

Dashcam video of a second October 2014 fatal police shooting is sitting in legal limbo. Two sources that work with the Chicago Police Department, as well as documents from a suit against the Department, and the Department’s response, confirm dash-cam video captured portions of the police shooting of 25-year old Ronald “Ronnieman” Johnson III in the Washington Park neighborhood just eight days before the shooting death of Laquan McDonald.

The 2014 fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald and its horrific circumstances are adding fuel to a steadily growing fire of anger and discontent with the city’s criminal justice system among Chicago’s Black community, according to African American activists, pastors and aldermen Aldertrack spoke with yesterday.

Fifty-three candidates filed ballot petitions yesterday with the State Board of Elections to run for Democratic, Republican, and Green Party Ward Committeeman for the first day of filing. While nearly half of the candidates who filed yesterday are incumbents (like Cook County Democratic Party Chairman and 31st Ward Democratic Committeeman Joe Berrios and 13th Ward Democratic Committeeman and Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan), there were a few newcomers.

After a marathon day of hearing applications for special use permits, most of which were for home expansion plans, the Zoning Board of Appeals approved zoning changes to relocate a medical marijuana dispensary from Fulton Market to Garfield Park, a new tech-focused, private elementary school for Lincoln Park, and a new transitional home in the Little Village neighborhood.

The Chicago Plan Commission approved several large scale housing and commercial developments to be built along the Lakefront and Chicago River, including the “supertall” Wanda Vista Tower project.

As election season draws near, Chief Judge Timothy Evans has turned to Professor Fraud to fill one of two vacancies at the Chicago Board of Elections. Professor William Kresse, an attorney, certified fraud examiner and professor at Governors State University, will be sworn in this morning to replace the late Republican Commissioner Richard A. Cowen, who passed away in April. While Kresse says the new job falls at the nexus of his professional interests – fraud, elections, and law – he says the appointment is bittersweet.

The City Council approved new regulations for privatizing city assets and services, “no-fly” zones for recreational drones, $700,000 in police settlements, an amended e-cigarette tax, a new airport parking program and fees for parking operators around city airports.

Cook County’s $4.5 billion budget passed the Board of Commissioners by a 12-to-5 vote after hours of haggling over a series of technical amendments.

The Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development met briefly yesterday afternoon to approve a property tax exemption for EDE Corp., the only exhibition display company based in Chicago. The 35-year-old, family-run company sought a Class 6(b) property tax incentive to expand their operations to a neighboring, vacant 35,000-square-foot-industrial building at 3790 W. 74th St. in the 13th Ward. If approved by the full City Council tomorrow, the company would save approximately $254,000 in tax savings over the 12-year period, and could re-apply for the tax break when it expires.

With more than half of the items on the agenda awaiting approval from the Plan Commission, the City Council’s Zoning Committee spent a majority of the meeting approving aldermanic applications to downzone sections of their wards to prevent developers from building “whatever they want” without community input. Most of those zoning changes, pending City Council approval today, are in the 19th Ward on the far South Side of Chicago.

A joint Committee on Budget and Finance will reconvene this morning to vote on new regulations aimed at preventing the future sale of city assets and services without an extensive public review process and independent audit.

With the first ballot petition filing deadline less than a week away, longtime 10th Ward resident Fred Carrizales confirmed to Aldertrack he’s planning to run for Democratic Ward Committeeman, saying he seized an opportunity when former Ald. John Pope (10) decided not to, and is getting pointers from convicted former Hispanic Democratic Organization chief, Al Sanchez.