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.
