Clark Co., IL. (ECWd) –
The Clark County Park District has simply refused to answer requests for public records, knowingly and willfully violating the law. The FOIA Officer is Charity Murphy.
The Illinois Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor’s Office has sent two more letters to the park district demanding that they answer the Complaints within seven days.
This puts them at 15 open AG Complaints within the past 2 weeks (previous article here). There are more on the way.
The latest complaints, 2015 PAC 36553 and 2015 PAC 36555 were requesting public records thru the Freedom Of Information Act (“FOIA”).
The public records sought, in these cases, were: (36553) by-laws, committee member’s contact information, and meeting agenda of the “Architectural Control Committee” and (36555) the documents that Larry Yargus sent to the “Architectural Control Committee.” — you know, simple things that they already have readily available.
These public records were purposely, knowingly, and willfully withheld from the public – knowing that they district was going to discuss and vote on leasing certain real estate to Yargus, with the expressed purpose of keeping the public from having the ability to intelligently discuss any of this during the public comment portion of their meeting.
This is completely unacceptable, but the majority of the board is apparently condoning the withholding of public records, the violation of law, and further legal expenses.
If the Attorney General cannot resolve these issues in a reasonable amount of time, the park district will have to answer to a Judge.
4 Comments
John Windmiller
Posted at 18:26h, 02 Augustactually its business as usual in CLARK County
Dave L.
Posted at 10:25h, 02 AugustMore of the same crap from the majority controlling the board. These guys just don’t care how much they break the law. They are unfazed by the AG and the PAC….drag them into court, they won’t care…they think its all a joke. The ED at the park is just a puppet to the majority, and could not care less. Nothing will happen, it never does. Its business as usual at Clark County Park District.
Mike Rekart
Posted at 08:26h, 02 AugustThese guys are going to go down in the record books .
sandy gray
Posted at 07:59h, 02 AugustWho has authority over the park board? Maybe certain members need to be removed from the board. Ms I DON’T NEED TO COMPLY, being the first to go. Is there an impeachment process that can do this?