College of DuPage violated Open Records Law –

College of DuPage (ECWd) –

In answer to a recent Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request, the College of DuPage responded to a request for “Copies of invoices submitted for payment to COD from a company using the name of Broadcast Technologies” or any other variation of that name since 1999.

Their response denied access to those public records using Section 7(1)(d) of FOIA stating that “Records in the possession of any public body created in the course of administrative enforcement proceedings, or any law enforcement or correctional agency for law enforcement purpose” as exempt.

Sounds legitimate, right? Not so fast!

The only records exempt are those records that “were created in the course of ” the aforementioned proceedings. The records requested were not created in the course of any proceedings, however, their creation may have resulted in the proceedings taking place (if at all) – which is not cause to exempt the records.

So there you have it, under the supervision of the college president, Dr. Breuder, the college violated the Freedom of Information Act.

We will eventually get the records, the only question is the amount of public funds the college is willing to expend in an attempt at keep them from the public.

This is becoming a pattern of Breuder – censoring emails, and now illegally censoring invoices. What will he censor next?

*edited 4th paragraph for clarity.