Carlinville, watchdog group information battle moves ahead

The ongoing tug-of-war between the City of Carlinville and John Kraft took another official step forward when Kraft’s attorneys entered their court appearance and filed a motion for partial summary judgment on June 12. Kraft, the co-founder of the Edgar County Watchdogs, filed his lawsuit against the city over Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that he first sent to Carlinville regarding the April elections. He requested recordings of all electoral board meetings for the previous two months and copies of nominating petitions for four candidates, correspondence to the electoral board from several individuals, public notices, agendas and minutes of electoral board meetings. The city’s initial response was to treat Kraft’s request as a commercial one, which allows the city a longer response time and to charge requesters for the costs of putting together the requested records. Kraft contends in his motion that as a professional working for media and non-profit organizations, he does not qualify as a commercial requester. While the city has made some records related to the request available following the initiation of Kraft’s suit, it has not provided a complete response, he has said.