Progress Illinois Files FOIA Request for Daley's Stimulus Plans

Progress Illinois, the left-of-center blog sponsored by the SEIU Illinois State Council, has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with both the City of Chicago Corporation Counsel and Gov. Pat Quinn's office to obtain the city's still undisclosed stimulus wishlist. Noting that 3rd Ward Alderman Pat Dowell has gotten nearly every alderman to sign off on a resolution intended to force the mayor to make his plans public, they asked her for an update on the progress that has been made so far.

An exasperated Dowell told us that for the time being, aldermen are still in the dark about how the city could benefit from the federal cash. '[W]e have no idea how much Chicago is going to get from the federal stimulus. We need to know how this money is to be spent.'

Dowell plans to call city department heads in early March "before a joint Finance and Budget committee hearing where she hopes they'll spill the details of the mysterious 'shovel-ready' list."