|
AG Madigan rules governor’s office has violated FOIA law, orders compliance
Thursday, Jul 6, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller * In a legally binding decision, the attorney general’s office ruled yesterday that the governor’s office has violated the Freedom of Information Act law by refusing to respond to a request for public documents. Attorney General Lisa Madigan then ordered the office to comply with the statute. This past March, the Springfield Business Journal submitted a FOIA request to the governor’s office. It asked for all e-mails sent and received by former Comptroller Leslie Munger since being appointed deputy governor as well as her public schedule. The publication never received a response, even after six separate e-mail requests, so they contacted the AG’s Public Access Bureau in May. The Public Access Bureau attempted twice to get a response from the governor’s office to no avail. So, yesterday Attorney General Madigan ruled that the governor’s office had violated the law and ordered it to comply. The governor either has to comply or take the matter to court.
|
 |
|
|
- Red Rider - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 10:22 am:
That’s her job, and has the investigators to do it.
- Will Caskey - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 10:22 am:
I aspire to this level of petty.
“Hey Bruce, you know how you’re about to lose everything you hung your office on tomorrow?
Give up all your emails on that race you lost last year too.
Cheers,
Lisa”
- DuPage Saint - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 10:23 am:
For Pete sake Rauner is the governor. He and his whole team are workin, fixin, governin. Way too busy to comply with the law. And that AG is controlled by Madigan
- Fixer - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 10:27 am:
Ignoring it didn’t make it go away? Poor Governor Victim. /s
FOIA requests, even if you’re going to deny them, usually merit a response. This was an easily avoidable mistake by the superstars.
- CEA - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 10:29 am:
Whole lotta deletin’ goin’ on.
- Give Me A Break - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 10:33 am:
“Whole lotta deletin’ goin’ on.”
They can delete all they want, those CMS servers don’t forget anything.
- Anon1234 - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 10:35 am:
The issue isn’t about emails related to losing the election. It’s about being paid $135,000 to be “deputy governor” at a time we can’t pay for basic services.
The State Journal Register reported that after the election, the Rauner administration hired 23 people who had worked for Munger in the comptroller’s office at a collective salary of $1.8 million.
What are these people doing? Perhaps Cullerton can find some waste here to cut.
- Flapdoodle - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 10:37 am:
Oh c’mon! IL FOIA is part of the basics for any responsible public official at every level of state government. FOIA is very clear about how to respond to requests for documents and timelines to do so. The Governor’s office failed to comply with the law, even after multiple requests, and the SBJ took the next step by appealing to the PAC, as they should have. When the PAC was ignored, that compounded the GO’s noncompliance. The next step is the IL AG, regardless of who occupies the office. It’s called the law, folks.
This is about open government and complying with the law. If anything is petty, it’s some of the posts here. The GO’s noncompliance is a little more serious than just petty.
- Mongo - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 10:39 am:
Let’s see, FOIA has been around for decades and the general idea of governmental transparency is a well-accepted doctrine in both parties. But the Party of BVR isn’t really a Republican operation.
Why the heck did his staff think they could just blow off the request?
- Trapped in the 'burbs - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 10:42 am:
He won’t answer any questions, he won’t tell us any plans to achieve any of his objectives, he believes lawyers and the judiciary are corrupt and that he is a king rather than an elected official. Simply put, he doesn’t accept the rule of law and believes that all other rules do not apply to him. If the house overrides his veto, we added $10 billion in debt without anything positive to show for it. We can’t go bankrupt, we can’t walk away from the pension debt and we can’t run government like a private equity acquisition. If the override is successful the Rauner experiment will be an epic failure and a huge missed opportunity. Looking back, if Dunkin, Drury and the third dem had voted to override the first veto, perhaps the governor would have been forced to work collaboratively. We’ll never know but Dunkin is history and former federal prosecutor Drury is radio active. This has been nothing but a disaster for our state. Rip me all you want, this isn’t a pro-Madigan post, but before you whine and moan, lead with your solution to the problems we face.
- Name Withheld - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 10:44 am:
So what’s the next step when he still doesn’t comply?
- Nick Name - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 10:45 am:
Does the AG control the Speaker, or does the Speaker control the AG? I get so confused.
- SinkingShip - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 10:46 am:
BVR must be so proud of his dully functional Raunerbots.
- ANONANON - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 10:48 am:
He already tried this maneuver with his own calendar and lost in court. Just another example of the administration believing they are special.
To answer your question… the next step will be for the requestor to have a court force the administration to provide the information because I’m sure they won’t respond to the AG’s order.
- Former Hillrod - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 10:48 am:
@ Nick Name
Yes.
- G'Kat - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 10:53 am:
Well put, Trapped.
- Just Me - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 10:56 am:
Inexcusable. You have to respond to a FOIA. Do what the Mayor does and create a BS excuse, but you have to respond. To ignore it just invites more scrutiny.
- Double Nickel - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 11:03 am:
Ignoring it didn’t make it go away? Poor Governor Victim. /s
That strategy seems to be working well for Mautino, though.
- cool - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 11:09 am:
Governor Bruce Rauner didn’t just ignore the freedom of information request, he ignored the Attorney General’s office requests to respond as well. How can the Governor defend not responding ? He could deny the FOIA or he could send heavily redacted documents which would be annoying but not illegal.
What the Governor is doing here is flat out illegal.
- Claude Peppers - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 11:21 am:
will the ipi, edgar watchdogs be following up with a story on this?
- RNUG - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 11:35 am:
Another unforced error by the Governor’s Office.
- FirstTimer - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 11:46 am:
Just another waste of tax dollars for court costs. I think the governor should have to use the AG’s office for legal representation or pay for any of the cost out of his account. Not for sure if money used in that nature has to be appropriated or how that works. Anyone know the answer?
- sharkette - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 11:55 am:
” Nick Name -
Does the AG control the Speaker, or does the Speaker control the AG? I get so confuse”
To funi so true too
- Anonymous - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 12:30 pm:
Sounds just like what happened during the Quinn administration. I waited three years for a response to a FOIA request….actually requested it three times……finally received it the summer after Rauner was elected.
- The Captain - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 12:33 pm:
This is a silly unforced error. The request is overly broad, had the Rauner administration responded they could have rejected it on those grounds and asked them to narrow the scope. It would not have been hard to bury/delay this in the bureaucracy, instead now it’s a thing and people are paying attention.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 12:44 pm:
b bb but, but Rauner campaigned and promised he was gonna be governor Transparency. What is he, some kind of a two-faced figurer?
Watch for vouchers and contracts related to “BleachBit” software.
- Andy Nymous - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 12:45 pm:
Free money for the SBJ attorneys when they sue–good use of taxpayer dollars.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 12:50 pm:
- Andy Nymous - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 12:45 pm:
Rauner promised to pay for the Special Session. Maybe he can pay the SBJ attorneys since it is 100% his fault.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 1:15 pm:
Curious as to any inquiries to Governor Office on the AG PAC Opinion. This isn’t a case of where the FOIA request was overlooked, the Springfield Business Journal made repeated requests, as did AG once it got to that office and it was crickets-no response. Has anyone asked Rauner’s Office about this? As prior commenters noted, he promised transparency. No snark, I truly want to know how justify.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 1:34 pm:
I’m surprised that more hasn’t been FOIAd - like Randy Pollard. What’s his job?
- Anonymous - Thursday, Jul 6, 17 @ 6:54 pm:
Dear Andy nonomous 12:45:
How is this free money? They worked for it and earned it.
Rich please permently ban Andy nonomous. Thank you.