Illinois – (ECWd)
We first exposed the questionable campaign expenditures of Illinois State Auditor General Frank Mautino in January of this year, almost one year ago. A detailed exposure of his spending was disclosed in this article.
Yesterday the Chicago Tribune ran this article which called for Mautino to step aside during the ongoing investigations by the U.S. Attorney’s office. What jumped out at me in the Tribune story was this statement:
“Produce the paperwork the elections board has requested, but that you haven’t provided, or take unpaid leave from your job. The state’s top auditor should not be perched in the powerful position of auditing government departments when he’s failing to comply with a state request for records.”
In February of this year, I reported in this article, “Record concealment is a violation of law and all indications are he broke the law!”
In May of this year, based on my information and belief that Mautino did, in fact, break the law, I filed a pro-se Freedom of Information lawsuit against the office of Auditor General and named Frank Mautino in that suit. Of particular interest was item #10 of my lawsuit which stated in part:
10. A review of the records provided by Defendant to the February 9th and 14th, 2016 FOIA requests (Exhibit C and Exhibit G) to Plaintiffs FOIA requests do not contain certain records that are subject to the Plaintiff’s FOIA request.
In the Answer to my lawsuit, provided by Assistant Attorney General Karen McNaught on behalf of Auditor General Frank Mautino, they acknowledge they did not provide certain records that were subject to my FOIA request.
ANSWER:
“Defendants, Office of Auditor General and Frank J. Mautino, admit the allegations
contained in ¶ 10 of the complaint.”
That admission is confirmation our Illinois State Auditor General violated the Freedom of Information Act, our state’s transparency law.
If the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board believes Mautino should step aside during the ongoing investigations, I wonder what they think he should do when he admits to violating the Freedom of Information Act?
We once again call for the immediate resignation of Frank Mautino and do so based on his admission to violating our transparency laws. We The People must have trust in our government and when the top Auditor for our state violates our laws, admits to it after being sued, then we can no longer trust any other work he does.
It’s time for the Legislature to amend this resolution and include his admission to violating our transparency laws and bring this matter to a vote so that citizens of this state can see where everyone stands on this matter. If our legislature can’t hold their employee accountable for violating the law, we are in bigger trouble than I ever imagined.
See page 5 for the admission to violating FOIA. [gview file=”https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Auditor-General-FOIA-lawsuit-answer.pdf”]
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