Even though Grafton Township has no problem letting me see the multi-ten thousand legal expense bills of Ancel Glink, McHenry County College refuses to release the 2008 bills of its Chicago law firm Robbins Schwartz Nicholas Lifton & Taylor and Woodstock firm Caldwell, Berner & Caldwell.
First page of January 2008 bill from Robbins Schwartz Nicholas Lifton & Taylor Ltd.
McHenry County College has replied to my request for the first fifty pages of legal bills for the year 2008 by sending billings 25 pages from each of its two legal firms from the first bill of the year until September/October.
Legal bill from Calwell, Berner & Caldwell. Click and you can see the word "redacted" above the blank space.
No problem with that.
But hide all of the billing detail. So no information, except for the cost of each unrevealed topic upon which work was done.
Could the real reason for hiding the information be that the college was in the middle of its discredited minor league baseball stadium days?
MCC cites Section 7(1)(m) of the Freedom of Information Act in its denial. Here’s what it says:
“Communications between a public body and an attorney or auditor representing the public body that would not be subject to discovery in litigation, and materials prepared or compiled by or for a public body in anticipation of a criminal, civil or administrative proceeding upon the request of an attorney advising the public body, and materials prepared or compiled with respect to internal audits of public bodies.”
The college seems to rely on a 1997 appellate court decision (People ex rel. v. Ulrich v. Stukel) that I’m hoping will have been overridden by the Freedom of Information law that went into effect on January 1, 2010:
“attorney client billing records which contain explanations for legal fees and indicate the type of work done or matters discussed between attorney and client could reveal the substance of confidential communications; thus, they could be subject to valid claims of attorney-client priviledge and of exemption from disclosure under state Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).”