Edgar County Watchdogs in a “Game” With Algonquin Township Clerk Karen Lukasik

Reprinted with permission – it seems as though Kirk Allen and the Edgar County Watchdogs are onto something inside Algonquin Township.  Here is the latest from the Watchdogs in relation to their Freedom of Information Requests.


McHenry Co. (ECWd) –First, we heard claims from the Township Clerk Karen Lukasik that Bob Miller, former Highway Commissioner, did nothing illegal.  That claim led to this article that appears to clearly dispute the clerk’s claim. Then we published several more found at this link.

Karen Lukasik

As the Clerk took to Facebook to thank her supporters and the local paper, she made another interesting statement that we simply can’t ignore.

“Let me do the job the public elected me to do and stop these silly immature political games all at the expense of the tax payers.”

Now on the surface, that statement sounds great, however, in practice, she is not doing her job, and is apparently the one actually playing silly immature political games. As the appointed Freedom of Information Officer, she has an obligation to produce public records to those requesting them and do so in a timely manner.

I currently have four FOIA requests that are well past due and in one case it appears the Clerk either can’t comprehend a simple request or is purposely playing silly immature political games.

Who does not comprehend this request?

“A complete copy of the Verizon phone records for account 786471402-00001 since January 1, 2016. The February-March of 2016 billing reflects the total for that billing cycle was $945.68″

Note that I asked for specific phone records by account number since January 1, 2016.  The additional information after that request was nothing more than information provided to assist in identifying records I knew of during the requested dates I was seeking.  I was not seeking any phone record with a specific date or amount.  I wanted phone records since January 1, 2016, and even provided the account number.

The response from the Clerk:

“I searched for a Verizon bill totaling that amount and was not able to locate it within those dates.”

I did not ask for a record with a specific total within any dates.  That fact she could not locate one phone record does not exclude her primary duty to provide the requested records asked for. The excuse she provided points to a bigger problem for Algonquin Township taxpayers and possible former elected officials.  Where are the records?

Record concealment or destruction without permission from the Downstate Local Records Commission is considered a felony crime.  How is it that I am able to produce part of the recordyet she is not?

What did she say on her Facebook post? 

“Let me do the job the public elected me to do and stop these silly immature political games all at the expense of the tax payers.”

Need another example of playing games? 

What is an Elected Official? Seriously, define it before reading on.

An elected official is a legal term and applies to a person holding an elected position in a unit of government. Pretty simple right?

So was my request:

“A copy of the Open Meetings Act Training Certificates for all Alonguin Township elected officials.”

My request only applies to elected township officials.  A person who holds an elected position in the past but is no longer holding the elected office is not an elected official.  They are a private citizen, thus no need to concern yourself with past elected officials as they clearly are not elected officials at the time of my request.

The response from the Clerk:

“Please be more specific on which elected officials you would like training for.  For example,  present or all past and present.”

First, she asks me to be more specific on which elected officials I was wanting records for, so let’s address that first.  See my request above and tell me if you can figure out “which“ elected officials I was seeking records for.  Note the word “all” in my request.

Second, she provides an example that frankly tells me she is either playing games or has no clue what an elected official is.  In her Facebook rants about herself, she stated she went back to school to get her Masters in Public Administration. She does not state she achieved the Masters, although she does confirm she is a teacher, which means she is educated.

Why ask which elected officials I was seeking records for when I clearly asked for those records for all the elected officials?  An educated person should be able to figure that out unless of course, they are playing games.

We lean towards games being played as the response was well past due the allowed time under FOIA, was not a proper response, failed to provide the specifically requested records either in part or entirety, and failed to include specific mandated information in the response.

For those that want to jump to her defense, understand pointing out she is playing games is a better position for her to be in as the only other option under these circumstances would be incompetent to perform the duties.

This was my response to her games:

Unlike other FOIA requesters you may have dealt with, I do not play games nor mess with AG complaints except for the truly questionable responses, of which yours are not.  We simply file lawsuits.

This FOIA request, and others, are past due which means you have violated FOIA.  I will provide one response to this communication so that there is no confusion.

  1. I did not ask for you to locate a bill totaling an amount within a specific date.    I requested a copy of Verizon phone records for account 786471402-00001 since January 1, 2016. 
  2. All elected Algonquin Township Officials.  There is no confusion as to what that means.  Each elected position in the Algonquin Township makes those people Elected Officials.  Past elected people are no longer Officials of the Township, thus they are not elected officials of Algonquin Township. 

The Clerk is past due on other FOIA requests and we urge compliance as the public has a right to know and making excuses to withhold and or conceal records is not going to work out very well for those responsible.

So who is actually partaking in silly immature political games at the expense of the taxpayer? 

The FOIA officer, or the public seeking public records?


Comments

Edgar County Watchdogs in a “Game” With Algonquin Township Clerk Karen Lukasik — 24 Comments

  1. Don’t you love the stupidity of liberals!

    Accuse others of what you do yourself.(Hmm. Straight from the idiot’s playbook.)

    Become confused as to what language like “all” could possibly mean.

    Claims to be a teacher. (That one is a given for indoctrinated stupidity.)

    Lie your pants off. (Worked for Hilldabeast.)

    Yes, I agree with the watchdogs. She is playing games, but she came unprepared to play.

    People in this township know of this abuse. Why does it take people from another county to out these crooks?

  2. Insight into Cindy Logic:

    Good and Evil
    Republicans and Democrats
    Conservatives and Liberal
    God and Devil

    Nuance doesn’t exist.

  3. You are wrong, once again. Besides the fact that I state over and over that there are no such things as Republicans or Democrats; there is truth – and then there are morons.

  4. Everyone is wrong Cindy, you are the only right one. Now, does that make you feel better? If you keep this up you will have to switch identities again.

  5. And if you look over in the advertisement section you can probably guess who “she” is.

  6. Watching? I have never EVER switched any identity. I have ALWAYS been my real name, Cindy. You two are the fools. Completely ignorant of anything and everything.

  7. There has NEVER been 2 parties

    Republicans and Democrats all are the same, all say……

    ” I’m whatever you want me to be as long as I get what I want”

  8. I have ad blockers running so I have no idea what you are talking about. (Notice how stupid those two are?)

  9. What? I said you were right, but as we have discovered anyone who says differently is a moron, stupid, idiot, etc… So you are right “Cindy.”

    So I guess you can’t see the B&W listing, oh well, too bad.

  10. There is no black and white on this page.

    The only white is this box to type in. (And it is really not that white. More like eggshell.)

    I truly have no idea what you are talking about besides the fact that you seem to be fascinated by my “true” identity (just like Moderate) in order to become a thorn in the side.

    Your goal in life seems to be set a bit low.

    Maybe you could also give up your lunch hours to dig around and make stupid claims like you are doing. (Only you change your position more rapidly than Moderate ever did.)

    All you liars should get together and take Angel out to lunch.

    Birds of a feather do like to flock together.

  11. Wow, way to deflect from the content of the article by attacking someone commenting.

    People named Fair Play, and Watching making unfounded accusations about Cindy’s true identity?

    That’s priceless.

    Cindy, I think the clerk was “outed” right here on McHenry County Blog.

    Recently, the author of this article by ECWd tried to ask the clerk some questions on her township facebook page.

    Let’s say it wasn’t responded to with kindness.

    Edgar County Watchdog’s have some BIG teeth, and bite back.

  12. Now ask yourself this.

    Why would the clerk mention destroying records as one of her first orders of business?

    No mention of digitizing them, only a destruction order.

    https://imgur.com/a/xoxXl

  13. Karen MILLER Lukasik?

    Is this yet another relation to the Millers???

  14. Serving & Protecting our gang is the name of the game.

    Yours Not Truly.

    The Police Chiefs Wife

  15. Sad but true: The illegal use of, the wasting of, the misuse of our taxpayer dollars is a “game” to some people.

    The Millers lost – Lukasik will also lose.

    The really sad part is that us taxpayers must always fund the “game”.

  16. Cal where do you get these priceless pictures?

    Exactly what is she looking at in the photo?

    Is it the truth staring her in the face?

    I’m looking forward to the future articles from both this blog and Illinois leaks.

    This is better than most movies.

  17. Is that pix of Jerk-Clerk Karen ‘Shady lady’ Lukasik from an old mugshot?

    Or a drinking duel with Tina Hill?

    Or a mysterious vision of a future mugshot?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *