by: Diane Benjamin
Polls show Lisa Madigan could easily defeat Governor Quinn if a primary election for 2014 was held today. Under the Freedom of Information Act, the following information was received:
Lisa Madigan was originally sworn into office as Illinois Attorney General in January 2003.
At that time, this office had 718 employees on payroll, as of February 11, 2013, the office has 727 employees.
The total budget for the Attorney General’ s Office when Lisa Madigan took office was:
$ 66, 366, 100, including $40, 710, 000 in General Revenue Fund appropriations.
The current year total budget of the Attorney General’ s office for fiscal year 2013 is:
$ 78, 921, 800, including $32, 243, 200 in General Revenue Fund appropriations.
Total employees up slightly over 1%
Budget increase slightly over 19%
In 2003: 66,366,100 / 718 = $92,432 per employee
In 2013: 78,921,800 / 727 = $108,558 per employee
Also received under the Freedom of Information Act:
Please be advised that there were 186 Open Meetings Act Requests for Review received in 2012 that warranted further investigation.
(2 were filed against the City of Bloomington, a 3rd was filed in 2013)
Please be advised that there were 129 Open Meetings Act Requests for Review files from 2012 in which a ruling was completed, prosecuted, or some other determination was made, thus closing the file.
(the 2 filed against Bloomington were not among them)
Please be advised that there are 159 Open Meetings Act Requests for Review files from 2012 pending and still active.
This language was taken directly from the response received. 23221 Closing Letter (1)
Either math is a problem (186-129 = 57) or they haven’t even reviewed 102 potential violations. (159-57)
From the Illinois Attorney General’s Website:
http://foia.ilattorneygeneral.net/Default.aspx
It is the public policy of this State that public bodies exist to aid in the conduct of the people’s business and that the people have a right to be informed as to the conduct of their business.
– Illinois Open Meetings Act, 5 ILCS 120/1.
Really?
