by: Diane Benjamin
Bloomington is being investigated again by the Attorney General – this time for illegally redacting emails. I wrote this post explaining part of my claim: http://blnnews.com/2013/12/27/proof-bloomington-has-no-transparency/
I sent that information to the Attorney General, but there is more to my complaint. The email from Normal City Manager Mark Petersen was not the only email redacted. The only information visible on the others was that they were sent by Rob Fazzini, the entire content of those emails was blacked out.
Since they have given me reason to doubt their redaction of emails, I had no choice but to file. I included this note with the filing:
If you missed the Edgar County Watchdogs report on this incident:
http://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/2014/01/bloomington-corporate-council-lied-on-foia/
Below is page 1 of the letter I received from the Attorney General:
Page 2:
Hopefully the Attorney General will realize severe problems complying with the laws exists in Bloomington. Maybe they will rule quickly, unlike they have done in the past.
Great! But The AG need’s to go further with an on site audit to ensure they haven’t illegally redacted other information from other FOIA requests as well. I’m sure this not this first time this has been done, and given Mayor Renner’s and Ald. Fuzzi’s pattern of dishonesty and stupidity, it seems to me that this must be accomplished, and they must be held accountable. Even though the City Attorneys handles the response letters and legal reviews of “touchy FOIA requests”, Hales and Renner are the Chiefs and the buck stops at both their desks,