by: Diane Benjamin
The State of Illinois isn’t any more transparent than Bloomington. I worked with the Edgar County Watchdogs for close to a year to uncover the state’s activities with Medicaid payment processing. Many FOIA requests were returned to us with a “No matching documents” label. The State didn’t know that we have many whistle-blowers inside state government giving us information. Some State employees want the State corruption to end and are willing to risk their jobs to do it. Gov. Quinn is now actively searching to fire anybody who helped us.
The One Edgar County Watchdog finally sued for missing information:
On January 13, 2014, in the Edgar County Courthouse, Circuit Judge Matt Sullivan heard the Freedom Of Information Act civil suit (13-MR-74) Kirk Allen v. Illinois State Health and Family Services and Julie Hamos (its Director).
HFS was represented by an attorney from the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. Kirk Allen was pro se.
During almost 2 ½ hours of hearing testimony and arguments, Judge Sullivan declared Illinois State Health and Family Services to be in violation of the Illinois Freedom Of Information Act, ordered them to produce documents requested, and order them to Plaintiff’s costs of bringing the suit.
So, HFS has to pay for Kirk’s court cost… where does HFS get money again?
Tell them they wouldn’t have to pay court costs if they followed the law!
Hooray! One for the good guys!