At least three Carlinville area residents have joined the chorus of complaints over the alleged unresponsiveness of the City of Carlinville regarding Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, the Edgar County Watchdogs (ECW) said on Thursday.
ECW co-founder John Kraft has been engaged in a longstanding tug-of-war with the city, with repeated FOIA requests being denied or ignored, the ECW said on its Illinois Leaks website. Carlinville and its city attorney have also failed to respond to letters from the attorney general's (AG) public access counselor regarding Kraft's requests for review of those requests.
More recently, the ECW has been contacted by three individuals whose FOIA requests were also refused, they said. One preferred to remain anonymous, one is a South Jacksonville resident and the third is a Paris resident. All three have filed requests for review as well, the ECW said.
The ECW has also questioned the rationale for Carlinville FOIA officer Carla Brockmeier's alleged failure to respond to the requests regarding Municipal Electoral Board hearings, which were held after a challenge to Mayor Deanna Demuzio's re-election campaign. Demuzio was alleged to have campaigned for petition signatures on city property.
The ECW argued that the failure to comply FOIA could lead to a felony case under the Local Public Records Act, which says that any person who "conceals any public record commits a Class 4 felony," the ECW said.
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