On July 22, 2010, the City of DeKalb received a No Further Remediation (NFR) Letter from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency for the property it owns at First and Locust streets (AKA “skating rink site”). [A]n NFR Letter signifies that compliance with all applicable regulatory requirements has been achieved, all corrective action (if any) has…
Tag: Freedom of Information Act
City’s Response to Request for Review
The following is the City of DeKalb’s response to the Illinois Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor regarding its denial of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the names of Council members who participate in the City’s health insurance plan. Click on any page of the letter to see a larger image of it.
AG Accepts Request for Review of Denial of City Health Plan Participants’ Names
Last month CB reported that City of DeKalb’s legal counsel had denied a request under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for the names of City Council members who are currently participating in DeKalb’s health insurance plan. I subsequently filed a Request for Review with the Illinois Attorney General, which you may recall is…
Two Mayors in the Paper Today
The mayors of DeKalb and Cortland each stood his ground on matters of conscience today in the Northern Star. –In a letter to the editor, Mayor Povlsen defends his decision to keep applicants to the 3rd and 7th ward alderman positions secret, equating and applying a “code of ethics” he followed as a counselor at…
City Must Reveal Aldermanic Appointee Applications
It’s Chicago we’re talking about, but it bodes well for the very similar DeKalb Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests made by our local dailies, does it not? March 5, 2010 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — The Illinois Attorney General’s office says the Mayor’s office must turn over job applications for the two vacant Alderman positions. The…
Northern Star Fighting for 3rd Ward Names
The Northern Star has submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain the names of the persons considered by the mayor for the vacated Third Ward alderman spot. With the questionable past of the 3rd Ward, it is interesting to see that the city has decided to withhold this information from the public,…
Guest Post in Sunlight Foundation Blog
Transparency Growing Pains in DeKalb, Illinois More about the Sunlight Foundation, which CB has linked to for a couple years under the “Good Government” blogroll heading.
Free FOIA Seminar in DeKalb
NIU will host the first of about a dozen November seminars covering key changes to Illinois transparency laws on Monday, November 9, in the Holmes Student Center. The informational seminars, offered by the Illinois Attorney General’s office, are free and intended for both public officials and other residents who are interested in changes to the…
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…
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…