Shelby County Record Destruction – Update

Shelby Co. (ECWd) –

We have received a partial response from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office to our Freedom of Information Act request pertaining to records approved for destruction by the Illinois Secretary of State. The history of this issue is covered in several articles that can be read here, here, and here.

I asked for specific records that they received permission to destroy. The goal was to determine if they actually were destroyed or not.

1. Copy of the 2018 Receipt Book
2. Copy of the 2018 attendance report records ( vacation, sick, personal time)
3. Payroll Bi-Monthly reports 8/24/2017- 8/25/2018
4. Copy of the 2017 attendance report records ( vacation, sick, personal time)
5. Payroll Bi-Monthly reports 9/1/2016 – /8/31/2017
6. Payroll Bi-Monthly reports 9/1/2015 – 8/31/2016
7. Copy of the 2016 attendance report records ( vacation, sick, personal time)

I received two files, here and here.  However, they appear to be the same file and to date, there are several items still not addressed in their response.

Within the email, the following information was provided.

“Per FOIA I have attached the requested documents including attendance reports for 2016-2018. Original individual slips were filled out for requested time off (vacation, sick and personal) and transferred to individual electronic employee records.”

Original individual slips were not provided and those can not be destroyed without permission.  While we have asked for them, it appears the failure to provide them with the above reasoning points to them no longer being available.

While we appreciate what we did receive, the response is troubling in light of the fact we were not provided any response to certain items requested.

I sent the following to the Sheriff’s Office this morning:

So there is no confusion, items number 1, 2, 2018 portion of number 3, and 2015 portion of number 6 have not been provided in the response. 

Once we receive a response we will update you with a new article.  If the Sheriff’s Office fails to address the matter we will turn it over to our attorney for a FOIA lawsuit to force the issue, which we rather not do but are prepared to in order to get to the truth of what has happened with records in that office.

Check back for the next article that proves key electronic records were kept from the forensic auditor which proves the payroll problem was even worse than was disclosed in his audit report on the payroll.  The auditor was told that the record was destroyed when in fact that was not true.