Last week I submitted a FOIA request to the City of DeKalb to review meeting minutes from the Preservation of the Egyptian Theater (P.E.T.) organization. Today I stopped by the Municipal Building to pick up two years’ worth, which translated to minutes of 17 meetings. Such accessibility is made possible by a provision of P.E.T.’s…
Category: Goo-goo Files
City Clerk Implementing New FOIA Standards Now
The new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) legislation has an effective date of January 2010, but DeKalb’s Office of the City Clerk will not not wait until then to begin implementing policy and procedural changes in fulfilling FOIA requests. In fact, at least two changes — that of charging for copies of documents only after…
FOIA Request Rejection & Appeal
Kay’s post about Governor Quinn’s signing the new, improved FOIA legislation is great news, but comes too late to help with this current and ongoing situation. Let’s start with a recap of events. I have been trying to obtain, via the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), ReNew:DeKalb meeting minutes. Re:New, as a private organization,…
SB 189 > Public Act 096-0542
Gov. Quinn signed Senate Bill 189, the upgrade to FOIA. The full text can be read at this link. It takes effect January 1, 2010. It seemed to take him a while to get around to signing it but I see that his office created a new Web site which is here: http://accountability.illinois.gov/. This is…
Cook County Transparency
Did you read the title twice? It’s certainly something for the “strange but true” column: Cook County as potential role model for DeKalb County. Cook County Commissioner Tony Paraica is now hosting a website called CookEmployees.com. All 25,000-plus Cook County employees are listed by name, title, department, salary and hire date in a database that…
Letter to City Officials Updated: Mayor Responds
Update: Mayor Povlsen responded to my letter. The e-mail exhange (so far) appears at the end of this post. The city manager responded to the statements I made Monday at the Council meeting. Here is my reply:
Chicago’s TIF Sunshine Ordinance
Ald. Manny Flores on TIF Long before workers occupied the Windows & Doors factory, the company received $10 million in TIF funding from the city years ago. Following that, Aldermen Manny Flores (1st Ward) and Scott Waguespack (32nd Ward), worked on developing a new ordinance on TIF transparency. It eventually passed the City Council and…
Breakfast and FOIA with the Attorney General
Attorney General Lisa Madigan gave an overview of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and proposed changes at a breakfast by the Better Government Association. The room in the Union League of Chicago was a little dark, perhaps because bright lights would not be friendly to the artwork on the walls. None of my pictures…
EPI Letter
Appearing today in the Chronicle: To the editor: In a controversial action late last year, the city of DeKalb hired a financial consultant, Executive Partners Inc., to analyze our finances and make recommendations for putting the city on better financial footing. EPI’s evaluation, “Strategic Financial Evaluation & Planning Process,” was distributed to council members May…
Trib: “Your Government in Secret”
Chicago Trib today: Since 2005, more than a thousand citizens have filed complaints about public officials in Illinois who refused requests for public records, most often by completely ignoring them. A review of those complaints, along with dozens of interviews, reveals a culture of secrecy shrouding the machinery of your government. Public meetings are often…