By: Diane Benjamin
The former Speaker of House in Illinois reports to a Federal prison today. Of course it’s 7.5 years in minimum security. Note no one in the State of Illinois prosecuted him.
I filed a FOIA request with the City of Bloomington that would have been received by them on September 15th.
Your request security key is 99BB0A96.
Your request reference number is Request Number: 2629-2025.
You can see it at this link: https://bloomingtonil.justfoia.com/publicportal/home/track
My request was for the large number of Emailed Public Comments for the August 25th meeting. https://bloomingtonil.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1021/files/agenda/6856
When I received this FOIA I downloaded the zipped file but didn’t get to reading it right away.
When I did have time to look at it I found the name of EVERY sender redacted.
Can people comment anonymously at meetings? No!
Emailed Public Comments are no different. I’m still waiting for unredacted copies.
To be fair, Chris Spanos the City lawyer was out of the office for a week. He returned last Monday. Since this one is obvious, he should have directed staff to send me the right files immediately. I’m still waiting.
This is the second FOIA fail in a month. https://blnnews.com/2025/10/01/bloomington-foia-fail-planning-commission/
City staff needs trained. They must believe the public are the enemy and therefore information must be hidden. They are of course wrong.
