Harvey faces contempt action over order to release records

The Daily Southtown will ask a Cook County judge to hold the city of Harvey in contempt for failing to heed a December court order to release public records requested more than a year ago under the Freedom of Information Act.

Newspaper attorney Glenn A. Rice on Monday said the city held records detailing hundreds of thousands of dollars in vendor payments until after April's mayoral election.

Many of those documents spelled out payments to Mayor Eric J. Kellogg and several of his relatives and friends.

Rice said he will file the necessary paperwork in the next two weeks.

Judge Sophia Hall could fine the city if she finds officials guilty of civil contempt.

Rice also said he will ask Harvey to pay attorneys fees for the lawsuit under a provision of the FOIA. Attorneys will argue the issues June 21.

The Southtown sued the city last year after numerous requests for public records since Kellogg took office in 2004 went ignored.

Documents trickled in ever since, as recently as three days after Kellogg won a second term, prompting the judge to ask whether the city violated the Freedom of Information Act.

Kellogg repeatedly has said he has done nothing wrong. He spent money allotted to him in an expense account afforded to all Harvey elected officials "for the betterment of the community and its residents," his spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail.