Repeat Offenders Sought

The 200 block of South Fourth Street has been victimized by a rash of repeat offenders ever since the Illinois Attorney General, Lisa Madigan, tightened open government laws in the fight against public corruption. The offenders file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for public documents that any citizen is entitled to review. The law requires that a FOIA officer be designated for each unit of government and respond to such requests within five business days.

The offense of filing a FOIA request is such an affront to the Home Rule City of DeKalb incoming FOIA requests are routed to their legal counsel to make sure filers do not receive any information about public policy that they are not legally entitled to review.

Fourth ward alderman, Brendon Gallagher, identified a repeat FOIA offender during ward reports of a recent city council meeting. According to Gallagher, with corroboration from appointed city clerk, Diane Wright, fellow 4th ward resident, Mark Charvat, had so far filed three FOIA requests in 2012.

Make that four FOIA requests for Charvat this year. He shared the results of a new request to find out how much legal counsel fees are paid for screening FOIAs. Documents sent to Charvat in response to his FOIA request do not give an exact dollar amount for the legal screenings but FOIA is mentioned numerous times in an itemized invoice for March 2012 legal services from Mickey, Wilson, Weiler, Renzi and Andersson, PC.

Also mentioned in the itemized invoice are notations regarding ongoing litigation at DeKalb-Taylor Municipal Airport; receipt and review of application, contractor estimate, Architectural Improvement Program Guidelines and Architectural Improvement Funding Agreement used for the ReNew DeKalb program; a conference with the DeKalb County States Attorney with reference to Open Meetings Act violations, and serving liquor at the DeKalb Public Library. Traffic court, workman’s comp issues, etc., all add up to $24,248.85 worth of legal fees and expenses for the City of DeKalb from March 1-28, 2012.

Despite being identified as a repeat offender for filing FOIA requests Charvat does not appear to be intimidated by the attempt to ridicule his efforts for asking for public documents. There are no penalties in the state statutes for citizens who file FOIA requests. However, public officials who violate the Freedom of Information Act as well as the Open Meetings Act may be found guilty of committing a class D misdemeanor crime.

The City of DeKalb takes FOIA and OMA violations seriously. Former city clerk, Steve Kapitan, voluntarily resigned his $60,000 salaried elected position for failure to meet OMA standards for recording closed session minutes, on the condition that he not disclose any matter discussed in closed session. As part of those conditions Kapitan received a two month severance package worth more than $10,000. The City was under review of the Illinois Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor for possible OMA violations. The good news is, according to Dean Frieders, legal counselor, the City of DeKalb passed that and another PAC review with flying colors. Kapitan appears to be keeping to the terms of his unconditional resignation in all good faith.

An over simplistic but cost effective method for reducing personnel and legal costs for fulfilling FOIAs is to put documents that the public is entitled to view online in a searchable database. The Information Technology Department is a $750,000 line item in the City of DeKalb’s FY2012 budget. Put the public’s business online. It’s very doable.

Internet Research Commando Keyword Alert: “Mortgage” FOIA Response 12-042 Mark Charvat (Mickey Wilson et al March 2012 invoice)