Algonquin Township Clerk captured on video removing records and more!

McHenry Co. (ECWd) –

A simple Freedom of Information Act request has now lead to yet another denial of records, however, the video evidence is going to be problematic for more than just Karen Lukasik.

FOIA Request 11/29/2017:

“A copy of any records that the current Algonquin Township Clerk removed from the offices of the Highway Commissioner, Township Supervisor, and Township.”

Lukasik FOIA Response 12/06/2017:

“There are no documents responsive to your request.  The FOIA officer for this response is the Algonquin Township Clerk, Karen Lukasik.”

If there are no records responsive to my request then I guess the video that shows her taking records and saying I’ll take “this”, and “this”, as she grabs records and walks out is just a fabricated video using state of the art video editing?  No, the video is real and the Clerk denied an FOIA request for copies of the records she took out of the Township Supervisors office which is going to be very problematic for her. (see 13:09 mark of the video below)

FOIA Request 12/17/2017:

“A copy of all digital images of public records taken with a mobile device, such as a cell phone, tablet, and/or other similar device between May 15, 2017, through June 3oth, 2017.  The request applies to digital images of public records made by the Supervisor, Highway Commissioner and Clerk during the above-referenced timeline.”

Lukasik “late” FOIA Response 01/04/2018:

“There are no documents responsive to your request for the Township Supervisor and Township Clerk.  I have forwarded your request to the Highway Commissioner for his office to answer.”

NO documents?  Really?  Then what happened to the digital images of public records that she took in the video beginning at the 6:58 mark of the video?

Now for what should be a serious concern for the citizens of Algonquin Township as well as those of Fox River Grove.

Why would Jennifer Curtiss, a Village of Fox River Grove Trustee, be going through files and a person’s desk in the Algonquin Township Supervisors Office?  Not only is this trustee from another community going through Algonquin Township records, she is left alone in an office she has no business being in.

At the 12:17 mark of the video, Curtiss asks the Clerk: “Karen, do you have the authority to be going through this stuff?” Lukasik responds with: “I can do whatever I want”.  Then, as if the Clerk’s authority is all encompassing to her, she admittedly starts going through Township employee Ryan’s “stuff”.  She even tells Clerk LuKasik at the 13:16 mark of the video that she is going through “Ryan’s” stuff, which generated a response of; “I don’t give a shit…….go through it all”.  By asking if the Clerk had authority to go through stuff you would think she would understand that the same authority question would apply to her.

This video provides clear indicators that the Clerk was not honest with her responses to our FOIA requests and is not a trusted keeper of the records. Additionally, as statutory custodian of the records, her response of “I don’t give a shit……go through it all”, is sufficient to call for her immediate resignation in our opinion.

Any Clerk that brings in another person from another community and allows them to have free access to records to include leaving them in that office alone with those records is not protecting the records of the Township.

What kind of trustee thinks it’s OK to be going through other communities records?

We urge the voters of Algonquin Township and Fox River Grove to make special note of the behavior of these two people and realize they have no place in public service.

REPOSTED VIDEO after it was first censored:

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