ORLAND PARK, IL. (ECWd) –
In yet another asinine move, the Orland Park Public Library (OPPL) decided to violate the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) again by claiming two separate individuals were the same person, a FOIA requester.
Illinois FOIA law doesn’t not give a public body the authority to determine, all by itself, that two FOIA requesters are the same person simply because the requests come from the same address, or email address in this situation.
The Illinois Attorney General has already published a “Binding Opinion” in 2012 on this very subject (CLICK HERE TO VIEW OPINION). In their opinion, the Village of Smithville had decided to classify a husband and wife as one person for the purposes of denying access to public records because the requests came from the same physical address, not unlike what the OPPL is doing in this situation. The Township of Arcola is trying something similar with a couple of my requests by saying two separate requests are one single request (13MR53, Kraft v. Arcola Township).
ECWd asks:
Did the OPPL receive guidance from their attorney, Klein, Thorpe, and Jenkins, that led to yet another violation of the law and further eroding of public trust?
Does the OPPL think they will win a prize for keeping the most secrets?
8 Comments
think first then type
Posted at 20:24h, 17 AprilBen you might read the story before making stupid remarks. The atty. general’s ruling says the same address is not considered the same person in order to deny records… Otherwise I see no anger in this as you seem to see. Ben, try new glasses –you seem to have a vision problem. As for obstacles, the denial of FOIA actually opens the door to court when its violation of law…thus helping 1. prove the governing body is intentionally deceiving the public, and 2. giving an enforceable crime that if proven, causes the board to fork over money for breaking the FOIA laws. A real citizen’s law with teeth!
franklin
Posted at 16:36h, 17 Aprilwas this a watchdog request or illinois leak request
jmkraft
Posted at 22:38h, 17 AprilNeither.
franklin
Posted at 23:42h, 17 Aprilsom whose request was it
Lisle Watchdog
Posted at 09:59h, 17 AprilSometimes I think these attorneys create controversy and make erroneous (stupid) legal decisions just to pad their bills…. really, wouldn’t it be more cost effective to just provide the record or post them online rather than paying attorneys to come up with exemptions that will not hold up in court?
Benjamin Franklin
Posted at 09:41h, 17 AprilIf you made the request from the same email, then it is the same contact. To avoid your complaint, you simply could have signed up from another website that provides free emails and indicated the other individual. Using the same email address with different names requesting the information is silly. This is seeming more like a vendetta against OPPL then an actual concern of public interest. You need to calm yourself down and start approaching this with less anger. Focus and provide reasonable solutions and don’t dwell on the obstacles. Your original message is getting lost in the ranting.
jmkraft
Posted at 09:48h, 17 AprilI will have to disagree. If using the same United States Postal Service mailbox does not qualify as being from the same person, then using the same email address does not qualify as being from the same person. The point here is that the OPPL is making decisions they are not permitted to make.
beelady
Posted at 11:46h, 17 AprilDennis Walsh? Is that you, attorney for OPPL? Honey, you need to get back to work. They’re not paying you $195 an hour to comment on websites are they? I’m sure the taxpayers of Orland Park will love that. Get back to blocking FOIA requests illegally! It’s what you do best!