October 2, 2023 12:26 pm CDT
Edgar County Watchdogs see apparent plague of FOIA failures in city government
CARLINVILLE (Heartland Newsfeed) — The Edgar County Watchdogs (ECW) are speculating that the same attorney is offering the same bad advice regarding Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the villages of Royal Lakes and Sawyerville, in addition to the City of Carlinville, according to the group’s Illinois Leaks website.
A letter attributed to Village of Royal Lakes mayor Pareoka Huddleston announced that “residents will not get copies pertaining to Village of Royal Lakes businesses until further notice.” (Editor’s Note: Such a declaration from a lawyer is in serious violation of not only the State of Illinois’ Freedom of Information Act of 2010 (5 ILCS 140), but also its Federal counterpart as well, which has been active since 1967.)
A letter attributed to Village of Royal Lakes mayor Pareoka Huddleston announced that “residents will not get copies pertaining to Village of Royal Lakes businesses until further notice.” (Editor’s Note: Such a declaration from a lawyer is in serious violation of not only the State of Illinois’ Freedom of Information Act of 2010 (5 ILCS 140), but also its Federal counterpart as well, which has been active since 1967.)
The ECW noted that they have also received FOIA request rejections from the City of Carlinville and the Village of Sawyerville.
A co-founder of the Edgar County-based governmental watchdog group, John Kraft, filed a lawsuit against the City of Carlinville for its refusal to provide requested documents through a FOIA request that was filed in January, which involved nominating petitions for city clerk, city treasurer and city council aldermen for the April 2017 consolidated election, as well as correspondence with city employees regarding the electoral board, all meeting agendas and published public notices regarding those electoral board meetings.
Kraft wrote on April 26 that the city failed to answer a 30-day summons before April 22 and chose not to file a response until April 28.
“The electoral board attorney did provide some of the requested records which may be the subject of this lawsuit, but that does not dismiss the required answering of summons,” Kraft said in the April 26 article.
Jake Leonard, a broadcast media and journalism veteran, is the editor-in-chief of Heartland Newsfeed. Leonard is also GM and program director of Heartland Newsfeed Radio Network, wrestling editor and contributing writer for Ambush Sports, a contributing writer for My Sports Vote and Midwest Sports Network, and a former contributor to Bleacher Report and Overtime Heroics. He resides at home in Nokomis, Ill. with his dog Buster.
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