‘”Isn’t that special?”
The Friday before last (August 1st) after the close of business I filed a Freedom of Information request with the Village of Oakwood Hills for documents that showed that there had been threats against village officials.
It should have been emailed me Monday.
That would have been within the five business days allowed by State law.
FOI Officer Melissa Goldman has replied to my FOI requests on a timely basis since I started filing them a year ago.
Nothing arrived Monday, so on Tuesday I filed a complaint about the violation of State law with the Public Access Division of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. (These typically take months to be processed. I remember losing only a couple.)
Yesterday, a reader sent me a copy of a reply to a similar FOI request from the Northwest Herald that was on the paper’s web site. (It’s on the front page today, I am told.)
The request was dated August 12th. Let’s see. That’s eleven days after mine.
The reply to the NWH from Assistant FOI Officer Cheryl LoSasso was also dated August 12th.
I figure it was emailed, but maybe reporter Jeff Engelhardt drove out and picked it up after being informed it was ready.
No such courtesy was extended in this direction.
While my reply was dated August 12th, it was mailed and arrived today.
You can read it below:
The Freedom of Information reply from Oakwood Hills which says there is no “documentation relating to threats against village officials.”
There is one thing I don’t understand.
How can there be no documentation regarding the threats?
On a post from 8/07 Oakwood Hills Police Chief Peter Goldman was interviewed by CBS news and he said he reported the threats to the States Attorney’s Office.
Wouldn’t that be on file or do they wait until the State looks at the claims first? The initial report given to the police department,wouldn’t that be on file?
I don’t know how that works but one thing for sure is that I know that if there is anything to this the State’s Attorney will address the issue.
CAL – double check your first paragraph says Lakewood and you really mean OAKWOOD HILLS.
We forgive you, you are a busy guy.
This has to stop.
Village officials cannot just pick ans choose what days to come into work and still be closed for business.
Something needs to be done.
I want to know what steps need to be taken to file a complaint against the village over an illegal shut down.
Will they be fined?
What recourse does the public/residents have against this type of tyranny?
There were no threats from the people.
However, someone heard Melanie Funk making a threat.
If it is true she should be arrested swiftly and quickly.
The people that heard her threat should make a report to the States Attorney’s office, not the Oakwood Hills Police.
Further, bring justice to the community and require her to provide her resignation.
More common sense…
If there is no documentation of a threat then it means the threat was made face to face…
If they threat was made face to face no investigation is necessary cuz they know damn well who made the threat.
No documentation also means no police report also means nobody thought anything was serious enough to officially file…
Thanks. Correction made.
No documentation of a threat does not only imply nobody took a threat seriously; it could mean many things.
For example, threats made by a feared or vindictive individual often remain undocumented; in a small community or in an isolated setting, threats made by a more powerful person to a less powerful person may go unreported.
Nonetheless, the act of threatening is offensive and intended to inflict distress sufficient to the agenda and motivation of the offender.
I do not know the specifics and I am not speaking to this specific situation, rather am questioning the logic that purports undocumented threats are not considered or perceived as “serious enough”.
Certainly, in this case, this may be accurate.
Correct me if I’m wrong but the NW Herald’s article about no threats filed has a picture of one of the board members who approved the “hosting agreement ” on May 1st.
Everyone’s heard this story but…
The Congress decided to close due to a hurricane passing by DC and gave leave to all government workers including the men guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
To a man they felt this would have been a gross dereliction of duty.
They stayed.
They stood guard.
They held their honor and duty above self. We have the weakest of our people in government work.
Time to frog march these weak liars in Oakwood Hills out the doors and let better people lead.
Scum.
Oakwood Hills president Melanie Funk said board members received threats, so the village hall is closed to the public and village business has been suspended.
But there is no documentation of the threats?
Everything has been verbal?
Any information regarding the threats is stored only in the brain cells of the board members and administrators?
Maybe one could FOIA emails of Board Members and Administration which contain the word “threat.”
I hope more people will run for a board position, in the last 3 elections I think there was only 2 or 3 people who ran for 9 seats.
I think that is the one of the biggest issues.
We don’t need a village board.