McHenry Co. (ECWd) - ECWd filed our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit this week against the Algonquin Township and Road District. After months of non-compliance from our FOIA requests it became crystal clear the Township Clerk and keeper of the records, Karen Lukasik, has no...
NEWTON, IL. (ECWd) - Once again, Jasper County School District is making up its own rules which we believe violate the letter and intent of the law. We wrote about it in a previous article (here) and now the Attorney General's Public Access Counselor is reviewing this...
SPRINGFIELD, IL. (ECWd) - Frank Vala was Gov. Rauner's appointee to Chair the Illinois Procurement Policy Board in 2017, he was appointed Commissioner to the Springfield Airport Authority in 2002 by the Sangamon County Board, and was Elected as Woodside Township Trustee in 2017. Vala had previously...
[caption id="attachment_44060" align="alignleft" width="393"] ECWd photo Clarksburg Schoolhouse - July 2017[/caption] CLARKSBURG, (Shelby County) IL. (ECWd) - History up in flames. After months of sometimes heated debate about the future of Illinois' last known two-room wooden schoolhouse, the building is gone. Some residents wanted to restore the building,...
McHenry Co. (ECWd) - Today I received a response to my Freedom of Information Act request for key documents related to the illegal contracting of a person to work for the Algonquin Township Clerk which we covered in this article. In short, we hope whoever drafted the contract...
DECATUR, IL. (ECWd) - Several months ago I requested dash-cam video of an accident in which the Decatur Police Department was involved in a high-speed chase after a homicide on October 31, 2017. They denied my request for the footage citing at least 4 seperate exemptions in...
Dekalb, IL., Northern Illinois University (NIU) - (ECWd) - Today brings the end to a lawsuit filed against the Northern Illinois University Board of Trustees for an Open Meetings Act violation when they voted earlier last year on former NIU President Baker's golden parachute, or Presidential...
BELLWOOD, ILLINOIS -- In a shocking and sad development, Bellwood Public Library Director Jacqueline Spratt announced her resignation (effective April 6th). Spratt has been a tenacious advocate for fiscal responsibility and government accountability during her 4-year tenure as Bellwood's director. (She has worked at the Bellwood Public...
Logan Co. (ECWd) - We attended the Mount Pulaski City council meeting Tuesday night and addressed what appear to be clear violations of law by the Mayor, James Cole. What was most surprising to us, not to imply the Mayor signing a contract with his union without...
Illinois (ECWd) - We received a confirmation letter on our ethics complaint pertaining to Governor Rauner's alleged co-mingling of political activities with state resources. The letter sent by the Illinois Office of Executive Inspector General was the standard cryptic format that tells the public little. "The Office...
