Tag: FOIA Request
Surprised? They knew and let parents file lawsuits and fought them anyway!
By: Diane Benjamin Parents and people who care about kids need to be on the AwakeIl.com email list. Today they dropped a bombshell. CALL TO ACTION: JCAR BREAKING – Discovered via FOIA: In September 2021, the Governor’s office, The Attorney General’s office, the IL Education Association (teacher union), Sangamon County State’s Attorney, and educational leadership […]
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Hilarious FOIA responses
By: Diane Benjamin On October 29, 2021 I submitted a FOIA to McLean County pertaining to John Butler’s case. After a couple reminders about the FOIA being late (they have 5 business days), I was told it’s taking so long because of staff shortages. I was promised I would receive the information on December 8, […]
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Want to know why your kids school doesn’t care what you think?
By: Diane Benjamin One reason: https://illinoisavengers1.wixsite.com/savederek/post/covid-cash That link has a BUNCH of questions school districts MUST answer. You can access all the payouts Illinois forked over to schools in emergency relief funds from that link too. I pulled out McLean County. Here’s your homework: Start sending FOIA’s. Blind copy me please, [email protected] Since lots of […]
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If this isn’t criminal it should be: Normal hiding from FOIA
By: Diane Benjamin Below is an email I received as part of a FOIA from Normal. Note it is entirely redacted: I’m not sure why Normal had a copy since they aren’t listed. I noticed it was written to a City of Bloomington employee, so I FOIA’d Bloomington for this email. See if you notice […]
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Leaving the Teacher’s Union
By: Diane Benjamin I filed a FOIA request with Unit 5 for information they decided to redact. Transparency at Unit 5 rates close to zero. One gem was included and not redacted. I hope more teacher’s are choosing to leave the union. I redacted the name, notice this person asked for direction because the union […]
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Normal: Squashing Transparency
By: Diane Benjamin New software is being used for FOIA requests at the Town of Normal. Formerly requestors were allowed to log in and instantly see old FOIA requests or the status of new ones. Those days are over. See the new screen here: https://normalil.justfoia.com/publicportal/home/search I played around with “Search Archives”. Even simple items like […]
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Guess what I got – and it didn’t take 5 days!
By: Diane Benjamin Three emails with my FOIA request showed up last night: Public Building Commission! Almost every other government agency waits 5 days to respond to FOIA requests, even if they have the information easily available. Thanks to Robert Porter, Commission Council. If you missed the previous stories: https://blnnews.com/2020/01/20/ever-heard-of-the-public-building-commission/ https://blnnews.com/2020/01/21/more-on-the-public-building-commission/ https://blnnews.com/2020/01/22/more-public-build-commission-3/ Evidently the records […]
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My Unit 5 present
By: Diane Benjamin I filed this FOIA request on December 5th: I was then told the request is too voluminous, so it was narrowed to just emails between the two people mentioned. On December 21st I received this request: No, I’m not waiting a month for emails. I then received this response: Guess what! I […]
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Liars lie – More lack of Transparency
By: Diane Benjamin I really hope the Bloomington City Council realizes how foolish they were tolerating David Hales management of the City for over 8 years. Keep in mind they heaped praise on him and lavish raises while Council meetings dragged on and on with little being accomplished. Last night’s Council meeting was 45 minutes […]
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Just something interesting – CIAM
By: Diane Benjamin Every once in a while I have to clean up some files. I found a FOIA request I received in December of 2015. It clearly shows that John Butler and CIAM pretended they had no responsibility to the City of Bloomington and the taxpayers forced to cover their losses. I remember filing […]
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BHS found the document!
By: Diane Benjamin BHS managed to find the document, yes it’s the same one I posted previously: Take Action 4 Sensible Gun Reform Keep in mind – the story used to be: Will there be consequences for lying, or do laws not matter if you are government with an agenda? This looks like a […]
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County loses FOIA denial!
By: Diane Benjamin The County not only has a difficult website to use, the committee structure makes their actions difficult to track. It’s hard enough keeping track of the meetings held just by Bloomington and Normal, I can’t track all the committee meetings and agendas too. The County Board meetings are mostly jut rubber stamp […]
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More Partying emails
By: Diane Benjamin I wonder if the City thought I wouldn’t read the massive amount of emails they sent me. Well, I did. I filed one more FOIA request today for the pictures they posted on the City’s Intranet. Correction: EAC stands for Employee Activities Committee. If the City is short on employees, ending this […]
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TWO FOIA fails in two weeks
By: Diane Benjamin Almost every FOIA I file gets extended. The law says they have to comply within 5 business days, but they can request a 5 day extension. When 10 business days are given, it should be enough time to get it right. Eventually it isn’t. On November 20th I made this request: I […]
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Little of this and a little of that
By: Diane Benjamin Gas in Decatur today $2.11. Gas in Bloomington today $2.25. _____________________________ A complaint was filed against Tari Renner for violating the garbage can ordinance: https://blnnews.com/2017/08/06/do-laws-codes-regulations-matter/ It was filed by a Bloomington resident who has recently been hassled by the City. The resident filed a FOIA request for the letter sent to Renner’s address, […]
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FOIA Failures
By: Diane Benjamin No, transparency doesn’t exist in Bloomington! This FOIA request was made on July 31st. I did receive the information on the dinner at Lucca Grill, I have not received the names of the people money was paid to IACE Travel for. A second request on August 10th and a third request on […]
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Japan: What we don’t know
By: Diane Benjamin We have no idea how many people went on the Japan trip. We’ve heard numbers as low as 19 to over 35. The names of those on this trip have not been produced under FOIA. We have no idea who paid and what the total cost was – other than the bills […]
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Fantasy FOIA
By: Diane Benjamin I filed this FOIA request on June 28th: It was due on July 5th, but I didn’t receive it. I keep a log of FOIA requests, this morning I had a minute to review them and noticed I hadn’t received this one. I sent a reminder to the City of Bloomington City […]
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BCPA – a BIG loser
By: Diane Benjamin The following numbers were taken from a report received under the Freedom of Information Act. The report has all current budget detail by department. Email me if you want the report, I can’t link to it in a readable format. ([email protected]) The first column lists everything connected to the BCPA on the […]
