***Update 4/17/2017: The Daily Chronicle published a related letter to the editor: “Social media uproar warranted regarding condemnation.” Thanks, DC.*** City of DeKalb is in spin cycle over actions taken to condemn Lord Stanley’s and Lord Stanley’s Annex earlier this month, defending its actions during the last council meeting and now on a blog hilariously…
Tag: Freedom of Information Act
DeKalb can become “business friendly” when this city manager is gone
DeKalb city council had another goal-setting session Tuesday evening. It was a good session, as was last month’s, but at one point I had to laugh, and it was during the perennial make-DeKalb-more-business-friendly discussion. I dearly wish more council members truly understood that friendliness is impossible under city manager Anne Marie Gaura. Unless you are…
Mayor Jerry Smith is mischaracterizing my comments
At the end of the August 28 city council meeting, DeKalb mayor Jerry Smith pushed back against public criticism of staff members, threatening to cut comments off with his gavel if he feels “personal attacks are being made.” There are three of us who have used the forum of public meetings to criticize the city’s…
Mayor Smith runs from Freedom of Information right smack into the First Amendment
I went to a special city council meeting last night, where I noted two odd occurrences. First off, Aaron Stevens attended. Stevens is DeKalb’s Freedom of Information Act officer, but there was nothing on the agenda about FOIA. The second weird thing was the attentiveness of council members. Gone were the usual tablet-tapping movements and…
Ask me how I feel about the Annie Glidden North project when I know how NIU is involved
DeKalb city council had a special meeting on Tuesday to discuss what they’re calling the Annie Glidden North (AGN) “revitalization plan.” AGN is what they call three neighborhoods in the northwest section of the city on either side of Annie Glidden Road. According to the 100-page memo that accompanied the meeting agenda, DeKalb in 2016…
Gaura made significant changes to DeKalb’s administrative organization without public discussion
DeKalb city manager Anne Marie Gaura has pulled some police and fire department personnel under the umbrella of DeKalb’s Community Development Department, following private consultation with selected persons but no public discussion. Staff employed in the PD’s Crime Free Housing Bureau, and the FD’s Fire Prevention Lieutenant (FPL), will now report to a Chief Building…
DeKalb’s troubles with FOIA, its FOIA officer, and its no-good website
Mayor Jerry Smith has promised us another City of DeKalb Committee of the Whole meeting for hashing out problems with the city’s new Freedom of Information Act policies and procedures that changed without notice in May. While we’re waiting for that opportunity, I’m going to highlight the issues via a partial transcript of Mac McIntyre’s…
Send an email with the same PDF you put up at the website. Yes, it is that simple.
I’ve now viewed DeKalb city council’s Committee of the Whole meeting held last night. The meeting centered around the new online Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Center, and whether city staff members’ changes to FOIA policies and procedures are legal and fair. Nothing was resolved, so they will take up the topic again in a…
The other problem with DeKalb’s new “FOIA Center”
Besides DeKalb’s difficulties in following the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (and basic principles of customer service in the 21st Century) there’s another serious problem: failure of its online “FOIA Center” to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) rules. Mac McIntyre of DeKalb County Online, who has also written about the misuse of…
City of DeKalb is misusing its new FOIA toy
I told you a couple months ago that DeKalb’s problems are remedial, and I really mean it. They do not have the slightest idea how to deliver a good customer experience to the public. Their latest trick is the new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) “system.” The press release is here. The web-based FOIA software…