SAUK VILLAGE | The Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office continues their review the Village's denial of information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) over what has become known as "Travelgate".
In July, 2013, Village Clerk Debbie Williams, Village Trustee Rosie Williams and now Police Pension Board member Patricia Couch attended a Building One America Organization's meeting in Washington D.C. raised money using the Village's taxpayer funded website and posted other material on the Village website as well. Williams claims that this was a "personal trip", however, some argue that the public does not have access to Village assets, like the village's website, to solicit village vendors and post their personal trip photos and video.
The Village in their response to a 4 part FOIA request stated that they had nothing responsive to the request. This prompted this reporter to file a 16 page Request for Review to the Attorney General's office which included the original audio of the July 23, 2013 meeting (which of course had to be FOIA requested).
In the response by the Village's attorney to the Request for Review the village admits that it had information which was originally requested but it had not provided but maintains their position that this was a "personal trip"
The repsonse filed with the Attorney General today "I submit that the Village’s
response is prima facie evidence that they have violated the Freedom of
Information Act 5 ILCS 140 et seq. as they admit that they do have information
responsive to the original request, yet failed to provide it."
The response also contends that the Village's response letter is
the clearest indication of their violation of the act in that they admit that they had information and failed to provide it and to date still have not.
The Request for Review seeks finding "that the
Village of Sauk Village has violated the Freedom of Information Act 5 ILCS 140
et seq and that an Order be issued by the Illinois Attorney General having the
Village of Sauk Village comply with the original request."
The Village Attorney provided a spreadsheet showing that they charged the Village $907.50 for an "investigation" of scandal spending 5.5 hours "investigating", however, the information was not provided as part of the original FOIA request. The Village Attorney said in their letter with respect to the "investigation" they conducted "we briefly discussed this matter with the Village Clerk and she informed us that she received an invitation to attend the Building One America Summit" yet the billing was for 5.5 hours clearly not "brief" and does not explain their investigation (more on that later).
Village Attorney Michael McGrath tried to downplay the matter at last week's meeting saying that these are "form letters" that one of their employees helped the Attorney General's office put together. People can file a Request for Review to the Attorney General's office as they have a right to do McGrath indicated during the meeting.
Both Debbie Williams and Rosie Williams have remained silent about the matter.
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| Debbie Williams and Rosie Williams |
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