By: Diane Benjamin
I received a large FOIA from the City of Bloomington this week. They extended the usual 5 days to 10 and then attempted to extend it even further. I refused their request.
When I FOIA for emails what I get is the same emails numerous times. Each time there is a response I get the original, the original again and then the response.
This one shows the mentality of socialist during a pandemic. The only grounds the City has for redacting the information is if this policy is being considered. “Never let a good crisis go to waste!”
Here’s where it gets funny.
The City obviously has no policy for redacting information. Guidelines in the FOIA law are left to the discretion of whoever is reviewing them. If the same person reviewed all emails, they forgot what they previously redacted.
Below are 2 examples of identical emails with different information redacted . This is City of Bloomington transparency! Very secret stuff here. “For and By the People“ is an oxymoron.
Another One:
This is hilarious since Jenn announced the same at the March 9th Council meeting she attended by phone. “Not feeling well” is a secret?
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Is it just me or is it almost like the city is being run by a banana republic’s tin-pot dictator’s unqualified lackeys who would have trouble pouring p#ss out of a boot, if the instructions were written on the heel?
You would think whatever software they are using to process FOIA requests has the capability to only capture/send the last e-mail which contains all responses/forwards, and then redact appropriate information from that vs sending multiple e-mails and remembering to be consistent with the redaction from all the replies/forwarded within the chain. Sounds simple on the surface, but is likely much more complex. I would hope the IT department in both Bloomington and Normal have the appropriate skill sets to research software options and identify a cost-efficient solution that prevents these types of issues.
They would prefer NO FOIA’s
Look at what we have nationally from people with the same mindsets that most likely occupy many of the jobs in this democratically controlled city. Leftist and the mainstream media are calling for a ban on the White House’s Chinese Communist Party Virus news conferences? They are actively calling for a ban on our leaders ability to give important information to the American people about the battle they are fighting to save our homeland.
It appears that by-in-large the left is not willing to confront the reality of the 21st Century. The balance of power has forever shifted and WE are not going away.
So they hope that this bad dream (being challenged and called out) will just go away. We all know that is not going to happen.
Yes, sometimes what is heaven for one person is a little slice of hell for someone else. We must be thankful to Diane for serving up little daily slices of hell to our socialist elites who are trying to run our cities into the ditch.
Diane, you get your stuff redacted more because you are not WGLT. It would be interesting illustration of government favoritism to compare what you get redacted vs what they do.
Heck WGLT gets letters to individuals before they are even sent to the individual from the Town Of Normal ….right Pam?
I’m sure Jeff Crabill will have no problem providing his e-mails since he his so transparent.
Given how passionate our leaders are about the Welcoming City Policy, you’d think the FOIA would have no redactions whatsoever. It’s as if Tari and the City know how badly this would look to the public and are worried about backlash and political fallout. Can’t have the public waking up.
I am waiting for your socialism argument in regards to the trillions being thrown around right now
Pay off to people businesses even churches
This is socialism writ large
Republicans supporting flat out socialism.
I did not think I’d see the day.
Add passing bills without a vote – just declaring them passed. They will try that again.
You are abusing FOIA. Also your readers clearly have no idea how it works and what it’s for. Please stop
Very funny! No
You complain about the inefficiencies in the city. They’d have more time to work on actual work if you weren’t submitting so many foias.
If they didn’t try to hide info it wouldn’t take as long. You do know every document belongs to the people, they have to prove why they need secrecy