By: Diane Benjamin
I was off 1 day getting a letter from Public Access closing my Request for Review with IMRF: https://blnnews.com/2025/06/05/bloomington-is-still-spiking-pensions-2/
Facts:
-My FOIA was filed with IMRF on April 28th
-On May 8th I sent IMRF a Past Due notice and got NO response from them
-I filed with Public Access on May 20th, the government agency that supposedly protects us peons from government
It is nice that this office responds quickly to the easy stuff – FOIA and OMA violations. The letter I just received states my Request for Review “alleged” IMRF violated the FOIA law. Nothing is “alleged”, it’s a fact for which there are no consequences. Of course, without this office I never would have received the FOIA, so thanks for that.
I’ve used the States Atty office and other state/county info request/concern avenues for several issues in recent years and have some good and some bad results. Persistence is a virtue 🙂 The goal of Automating everything has positives and negatives. Simply using workflows and ChatBots and auto responses us an easy way to easily pass the buck or trigger generic responses or emails or denials. Had this happen a lot locally too. It takes time to ask and research and handle complaints, service requests, ask for transparency when things look wrong or off etc.
Locally, the system seems flawed or more based on service levels and defacing those who question/complaint than get real answers and detail on any topic really.
Excellent work!
Thanks for all your efforts!
Great work! It seems as long as they give you what you should have received weeks or months earlier, they just close the file. No consequences for actually violating the law.