Are you dying to see how many emoticons former Schools Chancellor Cathie Black used in her thank-you emails to Mayor Bloomberg shortly before taking office? Thanks to a FOIA request and a judge's ruling, those puppies will be open for our perusal in 15 business days or less. Former Village Voice reporter, Sergio Hernandez, who's now with ProPublica, applied for the emails last year and was rebuffed twice by the city because "releasing them would violate someone's (although nobody said whose) privacy." According to the Daily News, in a ruling yesterday Judge Alice Schlesinger called that logic "particularly specious" because Black and her staff at Hearst were "de facto agents of the city."
Perhaps we'll see email chains of Black and Bloomberg dismissing any concerns on her expertise, or discussing the merits of David After Dentist. Either way, Judge Schlesinger wrote in her opinion, "As Ms. Black did not meet the credentialing requirements for the all important position of school chancellor, the public has the right to know what information about her employment history and qualifications was disclosed in the emails." Any "intensely personal" information in the emails "could easily be redacted."
A spokesperson for the city's Law Department said, "We are disappointed with the decision and are considering our legal options." Man they must have shared some embarrassing Groupons, huh?
