The city of Chicago's former top lawyer ripped her tenure as a "disaster" in an opinion piece and criticized the city's settlement of the Anjanette Young lawsuit.
The law department fought to keep the video of the police raid on Young's home, but Mark Flessner, who was forced to resign as corporation counsel, wrote that the settlement was excessive and that the lawsuit would have probably not made it to trial.
The city succeeded in getting several counts of Young's lawsuit dismissed before the case was settled.
Before he left the department, he recommended a settlement in the range of $50,000, according to the opinion piece.
He said that her approval rating has plummeted for the same reason that many of the senior staff has left the administration.
The mayor criticizes those who work for her and provides little to no guidance. She belittles the police and fire departments. She has no respect for any of the public servants who make this city run. Her tenure has been a disaster because of that.
At an unrelated news conference Wednesday, she said she asked for the resignation of Flessner because she lost confidence in his ability to function as the corporation counsel.
There were a number of things leading up to the decision, starting with the fact that he authorized without much consideration the filing of an injunctive action against a media company without any consultation or even giving me notice that it had happened. He said things about Ms. Young over the course of that week.
What was clear was that he didn't see her. He didn't value her experience in that moment, as we all saw in the video.
Senior staff and the public lost their confidence in Flessner. She said that the unanimous approval of the settlement by the City Council is proof that the offer is fair.
He will say whatever he says. He has his right under the constitution, said Lightfoot.
According to sources, the Tribune reported that Flessner shrugged off the incident during a staff call with Lightfoot the morning after CBS-2 aired disturbing footage from the raid.
After a staffer asked about the case, Flessner said it wasn't a big deal and noted officers let Young get dressed after she was handcuffed without any clothes on, sources said.
After the remark, Lightfoot kept Flessner on board for a few days, but he resigned the following weekend.
The statement said that no amount of money could erase what Young had suffered. No amount of money could give Ms. Young what she wanted, which is to never have been placed in this situation in the first place.
The statement said that Young wanted to let the world know that the raid was horrible.
The Law Department was led by a friend of Lightfoot's, who was tapped to be the mayor. She asked him to resign in December 2020 because of the criticism of her administration.
The Tribune reported earlier this year that there was a dispute between Lightfoot and Flessner over whether she would give him city business.
According to an email released in response to an open records request, the Chicago Board of Ethics received an advisory opinion on whether or not to accept city cases about three months after Lightfoot requested his resignation.
According to the Board of Ethics, the Department of Law asked if he could take on the work.
According to the board, Lightfoot has no objection.
The opinion was forwarded to Lightfoot by Flessner at 9:52 a.m. on April 13. The mayor forwarded it to her chief of staff and interim corporation counsel seven minutes later.
In September, she sent a letter to the Board of Ethics saying that she had no objection to him getting city work.
In the letter, Lightfoot said that she did not make a comment to Mr. Flessner. I have never told him that I would approve of his engagement as outside counsel to the city.
The April emails were released to the Tribune five days later. When asked why she didn't deny the claim, the mayor's office declined to comment.
He has not worked for the city since he resigned.
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