McHenry County Blog

The Village of Johnsburg posted a press release attacking Mary Haney and her husband for the cost of replying to Freedom of Information requests. It showed up a day after Haney, running for Village President against incumbent Ed Hettermann, delivered remarks during Public Comment time to the Village Board.

Since the cost of complying with Freedom of Information requests are part of the press release, I thought folks might be interested in their contents.

The entire file is too extensive for me to post, but here’s the resolution that the Illinois Attorney General’s Office’s Public Access Counselor provided on September 22, 2011.

There are others within the last two years which I might dip into later.

My quick reading of what’s below and the documents provided leads me to believe the FOI Request was sent by Haney or on her behalf (the name of the requested is blacked out) and that the stimulus for the request was the Village of Johnsburg’s paying a property tax bill that the Haneys had previously paid.

The stack of paper provided when documents concerning two years of legal fees were requested from the McHenry County 708 Mental Health Board.  Any one interested in analyzing them is welcome to them.  Just drop me an email.

For about a month I have been trying to obtain two years of legal expenses in a user-friend format for the McHenry County Mental Health Board (often called the “708 Board” because of the number of its authorization section in the State statutes).

First I was given a stack of paper about which I wrote here.

I asked for an electronic copy of the 17-page cover letter.

The purpose for the request was to be able to provide you with information that you could search on the internet.

What I got was a “locked” pdf format which cannot be copied line by line.

It can be copied only page by page.

Because of the refusal of the 708 Board to provide the information in a user-friendly format, while publicly proclaiming its dedication to transparency, I have decided to convey the information received.

Although I have appealed the refusal of the Mental Health Board to provide the information in a user-friendly format, I’m showing you the information below in the hope that someone will put in a spreadsheet and analyze what attorneys got how much for doing what.

And, yes, I recognize that the Mental Health Board will pay its attorney Frank Gosser $250 per hour to prevent you and me from obtaining what you see below in a friendlier format.

A couple of weeks ago on January 24th, I asked for the last two year’s legal expenses for the 708 Mental Health Board.

I asked that this information be provided by email, specifically writing, “Thanks for fulfilling this request via email.”

On January 30th, I was told that the Board had invoked an allowed additional five business days to get the information together.

I picked up a stack of legal fee documents on February 7th. I was told that the information was not available in an electronic format.

The stack of paper provided when documents concerning two years of legal fees were requested from the McHenry County 708 Mental Health Board.

On February 8th, I asked for an emailed copy of the cover letter, which listed all of the legal expenses by date and vendor.

It arrived February 13th, but in a format which I could not copy and paste for you to read.

I have just sent the following email to the 708 Board:

“Given your board president’s statement that you are a transparent agency, let me re-phrase my request for an emailed copy of the transmittal letter accompanying your reply to my FOIA request for legal fees.

“I am looking for a version with a format that I can copy and paste into McHenry County Blog. From previous responses from other governments, I know that PDF can be made so that it can be copied or protected. You have not sent the version that allows it to be copied on a line by line basis.

“So, I request that the PDF copy you sent me be re-sent in an unlocked version or, my preference, that you send me the version that probably was typed into a Word document in the first place.

“Again, if you feel the need to consider this an FOIA request, please do so.”

The letter was 17 pages long and will probably bore most readers, but its contents will show you how much of your tax dollars are spent on legal fees by the Mental Health Board.

Today Kevin Craver has written a long article about Donna Kurtz’ Public Health Committee’s reappointment interview of 708 Board President Lee Ellis. It is well worth reading.

I found particularly interesting the uncertainty of the administrative expenses of the 708 Board–”from 8.7 percent of the budget in 2008 to 19 percent in 2012.”

Could money spent on this Mental Health Board building have been allocated to services for Developmentally Disabled people?

Also of interest in the fact that money borrowed at interest rates subsidize by the Federal government’s stimulus program have to be paid back with local tax dollars as a result of “almost quadrupled[ly] the size of its Crystal Lake headquarters through $3 million in federal economic stimulus bonds it now is paying back.”

Crystal Lake City Hall.

This past spring I asked various municipalities to provide emailed lists of their employees who made over $75,000 in salary and fringe benefits.

Many complied with the names and compensation information.

The City of Crystal Lake sent the information, but only by job title and for that information I was referred to the City web site.

I appealed to the Illinois Attorney General’s Public Access Division on two grounds:

• the response was not by email
• the response did not include employee names

November 15th Assistant Attorney General Steve Silverman sent a four-page letter affirming the appeal.

To my request for an email response, the Public Counselor’s Office ruled that referring me to the City web site, “does not satisfy the requirement that a public body furnish a requested with a copy of the record in electronic format.”

While I contended that the information had to be posted by name, the City contended, “[n]other in Section 7.3 or anywhere else in the O[pen] M[eetings] A[ct] requires public bodies to list the names of employees.”

The Assistant Attorney General agreed that “Section 7.3(a) is ambiguous to the extent that its language is silent as to whether employees may be identified by name or by title.”

But, puts out that in legislative debate on the law, which was part of reforms intended to prevent ‘pension abuses’ such as ‘spiking,” Rep. Karen May made reference to both terms. “Pension spiking” refers to giving an employee a large raise right before retirement, the letter notes.

“To detect pension abuses such as spiking, it is necessary to be able to compare the compensation and benefits of individually identifiable employees to their previous levels of compensation,” the letter continues.

“…To interpret Section 7.3(a) of OMA to permit public bodies to ‘identify’ individuals by job title rather than by name would impede the public’s access to information needed to detect pension and compensation abuses…Thus, the public is entitled to information regarding the compensation and perquisites of individual public employees.’

“We conclude that the City violate Section 7.3(a) of the O[pen] M[eetings] A[ct] by failing to post the names of employees whose total compensation packages exceed $75,000 per year. Accordingly, we request that the City immediately revise the information posted on its website to include the names of those employees, and also provide Mr. Skinner with an electronic copy of the salary compensation for those employees.”

The City has complied with the Public Access Divisions’ request.

I filed a Freedom of Information request with Illinois’ Downstate Teachers Retirement Fund.

I came up dry and got a reply through an email.

This letter with $5.75 postage did not need to be sent since the reply to McHenry County Blog's Freedom of Information request was answered by email.

But, TRS also sent me a letter by Certified Mail

I talked to them about it, telling the Freedom of Information Office that the letter was unnecessary.

I told them if I wasn’t home I would not bother to go the Post Office to sign for it.

Nevertheless, TRS sent a certified letter.

It cost $5.75.

The same day, I received a reply from the City of Crystal Lake.

It came by regular mail.

Not that Crystal Lake didn’t used to be swimming in enough money to send replies by certified mail. I got four one day in 2009 when postage was $5.32 a letter.

Most governments comply with my requests via email.

Good enough for me and less work and cost to the government.

Not the Teachers Retirement System of the State of Illinois.

It uses money it doesn’t have enough of to reply at the highest cost possible.

No, I guess hand delivery would be more expensive.

Here’s a post card mailed to Fox River Grove Fire Protection District President Michael Kunz at the fire station address.

On night last week, I shot off 20-30 Freedom of Information requests for emails from announced McHenry County Sheriff candidate Andy Zinke.

I’ve gotten a lot of replies.

Today I received my first rejection.

It was from the Village of Spring Grove, the town that just approved video slot machines in its taverns.

Needless to say, I appealed the denial to the Public Access Counselor of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office.

One has to wonder why a village would deny a document which is in its possession.

The folks I can see who will win here are the lawyers who answer the reasons why the denial was make.

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I have been informed by a village official that Ancel, Glink, Diamond, Bush, DiCianni and Krafthefer represent the village.

West Elementary School in winter.

I have to say I am disappointed that Crystal Lake District 47 has no idea of how much it might cost to shift the financing of teacher pensions from state taxpayers to local taxpayers.

In a Freedom of Information Request, I asked for the ““estimated increase in local taxes in total and by home if teacher pensions have to be paid by property taxes, as being considered by the General Assembly.”

The reply:

“District 47 does not possess records containing the information you are requesting.”

Wouldn’t you think the administration and school board might be interested in that number, even if the plan is no longer under active consideration?

Part of the Barrington Hills Observer masthead.

I see the mention of the Village of Barrington Hill’s failure to answer Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas’ request for debt information in Tuesday’s Chicago Tribune editorial.

That failure was noticed and memorialized by The Barrington Hills Observer.

On that site is the press release that Pappas sent out which, I assume, led to the editorial.

In the FOI request, Pappas says, ““We are taking this extraordinary step of using the FOIA provision because government may not flout the law any more than an individual. If anything, government should set the example in obeying the law.”

Here is what she requests:

“This Office hereby requests a full, complete, unabridged and unedited copy of (your) most recent audited financial statement.”

And the reason for the headline?

I called the Treasurer’s Office seeking the press person. Before I was connected to Bob Benjamin I was able to file a Freedom of Information request via email for the Pappas Freedom of Information request.

So, I’d make two suggestions.

Get more people to answer the phone.

There is such a long introductory message pointing callers everywhere but the Treasurer’s Office that most people probably just hang up.

After pushing the button “8″ to talk to a real person, the phone rang, many, many, many, many, many, many…times. Not that the woman who answered wasn’t pleasant. She was.

There just aren’t enough of her, so to speak.

You can read the names provided after a previous Freedom of Information request.

The first time I asked, I had no problem getting applications from those applying for the vacant McHenry County Superintendent of Schools post.

This is the elected official, you will recall, whose shoes have been filled by the Lake County Regional Superintendent of Education.

The clerical folks are still pushing the teachers’ and other paperwork, but, when signatures are needed, the Lake County official has kindly agreed to affix hers.

After the last nominee withdrew, three school board members, past and present, wrote comments that the post was unneeded.

Now, it’s

“TOP SECRET, HUSH, HUSH!”

I’m guessing it’s because a daughter of a former elected county official is interested in the job.

Undoubtedly qualified, considering the statutory requirements.

But, come on.

Even the Circuit Court releases the names of applicants for Associate Judge vacancies.  Surely that’s are more important than a Regional Superintendent of Schools vacancy.

Here’s the reason for hiding the name or names.  It involves

“an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy due to the disclosure of information that may be highly personal or objectionable to a reasonable person in which the person’s privacy outweighs any legitimate public interest in obtaining the information.”

What’s that all about?

Think “a reasonable person” might decide to vote against such a person if the information surfaced before the fall election in which the appointee will be on the ballot?

In any event, here is the Freedom of Information denial letter. Read it for yourself.

Most of what outside auditors do is pretty dry.

Having served on the Illinois Legislative Audit Commission, I’ve read enough of them.

The real interesting stuff is in the Management Letter.

When I saw McHenry County College Board Agenda for October 27th had the Management Letter on it, I filed a Freedom of Information Act request for it.

It took the maximum length of time to receive a reply and it was, in a word:  “No.”

The denial letter is below. Click to enlarge.

So, again MCC retreats into its secret chamber and refuses to reveal problems, this time discovered by its outside auditor