Urbana Spent $30K Unlawfully Concealing Police Use of Force Records – Illinois
The City of Urbana, Illinois has now spent over $30,000 in their efforts to keep police use of force records secret, only to eventually release them in a lawsuit settlement. This story started almost exactly two years ago, when Check CU requested records from the City related to instances where police used force, such as beating, pointing pistols at, or firing stun guns at suspects. The records request was made on January 29th, 2022, and the City provided some records, but denied others....
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This non-profit site was established to aid in disseminating information about relevant issues in the Champaign-Urbana area. Transparency and access to public records is paramount to functioning government and since the public bodies within CU are failing in that regard, civilians must do the work. If you have files or documents that are of public interest, please consider sending them to Check CU so that we can make them publicly accessible.
-Christopher Hansen, Founder
Latest articles
School Board Spent $20K Trying to Keep Closed Meeting Sealed – Yorkville, Illinois
Yorkville District 115 School Board President Darren Crawford (left) swears in a new Board member (October 30, 2023) Check CU has acquired legal invoices showing line by line expenses related to an Open Meetings Act (OMA) violation by the Yorkville, Illinois Community...
Urbana Council Pressured to Expand Police Department – Illinois
Urbana, Illinois Police Chief Larry Boone presents to the City Council on Police Department staffing on April 1st, 2024 The Urbana City Council has recently undergone two presentations pushing for a significant expansion of the Police Department (at significant cost),...
Champaign School Board Member Resigns, Sees No Clear Path Forward – Illinois
Champaign, Illinois Unit 4 School District Board member Jamar Brown reads a prepared resignation letter during the March 4th Board meeting Champaign, Illinois Unit 4 School District Board member Jamar Brown resigned on March 4th, 2024, saying he can “no longer see a...
Champaign Unit 4 Schools Spend Millions on Amazon – Illinois
Chart of yearly spending on Amazon purchases by the Champaign, Illinois Unit 4 School District (created by Check CU from data acquired via a FOIA request to the District) Check CU has acquired a complete record of Amazon.com purchases by the Champaign, Illinois Unit 4...
Urbana Council Cited by AG for Years of OMA Violations – Illinois
Urbana, Illinois City Attorney David Wesner (far right) argued that the City of Urbana is not required to post meeting minutes online because, according to him, the City website is not maintained by full-time staff. The Attorney General has finally issued a...
County Board Discuss Porn & Work Practices of Auditor’s Office – Champaign County, IL
Far right: Champaign County Auditor George Danos The Champaign County Board held an unusual meeting yesterday with only one agenda item: “Response to FOIA Request”. The FOIA request which prompted this meeting came from an email address bearing the name Cookie Cutter:...
Asphalt Plant Faces Possible Class Action Due to Odorous Fumes – Urbana, Illinois
Emulsicoat asphalt plant in Urbana, Illiois Some residents in Urbana, Illinois have been receiving letters from an Indiana law firm regarding possible litigation over a decades long air quality problem. Neighbors in the Historic East Urbana Neighborhood Association...
Has Danville’s Anti-Abortion Law Been Aborted? – Illinois
On May 2nd, 2023, the Danville, Illinois City Council passed a controversial anti-abortion ordinance which many parties believed was so legally objectionable that it would surely result in a U.S. Supreme Court case. Danville’s legal counsel even suggested that...
Fourth Extension Requested on Hilton Hotel Project – Urbana, Illinois
Photo of the west side of the Royer Hotel project, taken February 3rd, 2024 Developers who signed a hotel deal with the City of Urbana, Illinois in June of 2019 are now requesting an extension for the fourth time. The Hotel Royer (previously known as the Lincoln...
Yorkville BOE Book Ban Closed Meeting Recording Released – Illinois
(please listen to the audio to understand the context of this statement about God and science - the Board member was positing a hypothetical scenario) Nearly six months after unlawfully closing a meeting to the public, the Yorkville Community School District 115 Board...
School District Demands News Article on Illegal Book Ban Meeting be Altered – Yorkville, Illinois
Yorkville Community School District 115 Board of Education, Director of Communications Brent Edwards Check CU has received a letter from the Yorkville, Illinois Community School District 115 demanding that we alter the contents of a news article which we published...
Urbana Spends $20K/Year on Ammunition, Considers Ceasefire in Middle East – Illinois
Urbana, Illinois City Council presentation on Gaza ceasefire resolution by Ben Joselyn on January 8th, 2024 Last week’s Urbana, Illinois City Council meeting was packed wall to wall largely because of a single discussion item on the agenda: the consideration of a...
School Board Refuses AG Order to Release Secret Meeting Recording – Yorkville, Illinois
Yorkville District 115 School Board President Darren Crawford (left) swears in a new Board member (October 30, 2023) Thirteen days ago, the Illinois Attorney General’s office directed Yorkville School District 115 to release the audio recording of an unlawful closed...
Police Request Removal from Grand Theft Auto Video Game – Champaign, Illinois
Custom Champaign Police Department graphics created by Zach Royce for the Grand Theft Auto video game The Champaign, Illinois Police Department was not happy when they saw images from the popular video game Grand Theft Auto showing squad cars and police officers...
City of Champaign Pays to Settle Lawsuit on Police Misconduct Records – Illinois
Champaign, Illinois Police officers stand with the Mayor and City Council after being sworn in The City of Champaign is paying out yet again to settle a lawsuit related to unlawfully denied public records. Check CU filed the lawsuit in April of 2022 when the...
Council Failure to Approve Meeting Minutes a Years-Long Problem – Urbana, Illinois
Urbana, Illinois City Attorney (right) argues that the City of Urbana is not required to post meeting minutes online because, according to him, the City website is not maintained by full-time staff. (also pictured: Council member James Quisenberry, City Administrator...
Urbana Mayor Admits Secret Meeting was OMA Violation – Illinois
Urbana, Illinois Mayor Diane Marlin issued a letter on January 4th acknowledging that part of a Plan Commission meeting she attended last month was unlawfully closed to the public (Photo by ILDocs.com) Less than 24 hours after the Illinois Attorney General...
Urbana Plan Commission Investigated by AG for Unlawful Closed Meeting – Illinois
Members of the Urbana, Illinois Plan Commission began to leave the Council Chambers to hold a closed meeting in the 2nd floor conference room. (top right: City Attorney David Wesner, Mayor Diane Marlin, and a City staff member) The Illinois Attorney General has...
Latest records
Sauk Village PAC Opinion 20-001 – Board Violated OMA by Failing to Timely Approve Meeting Minutes
This is an Open Meetings Act determination issued on February 10th, 2020 by the Illinois Attorney General Public Access Counselor in response to a request for review submitted by Steve LaRock who alleged that the Village of Sauk Village Board of Trustees was violating the OMA by failing to approve meeting minutes within the required time.
Section 2.06(b) of the OMA says that a “public body shall approve the minutes of its open meeting within 30 days after that meeting or at the public body’s second subsequent regular meeting, whichever is later.”
The Board had very clearly failed to follow the OMA rules on timely approval of meeting minutes, so the PAC determination that the Board violated the OMA was rather straightforward.
One notable portion of this determination is a clear statement by Chief Deputy Attorney General Brent Stratton that the Board Committee of the Whole is not a public body distinct from the regular Board, so the counting of subsequent meetings needed to include both regular Board and Committee of the Whole meetings, and they could not be considered meetings of two different public bodies.
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Open in new tab SpotCrime v Cook County Sheriff’s Office 2015 PAC 34653 – FOIA Requester Compiling and Selling Data is Not News Media
This is a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) non-binding opinion issued by the Illinois Attorney General Public Access Counselor in response to a request for review submitted by the law firm Mandell Menkes on behalf of SpotCrime.
In 2015, SpotCrime began submitting daily FOIA requests to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office seeking crime data. The Sheriff’s Office said they could produce data on a monthly basis, but SpotCrime persisted with daily requests. The Sheriff’s Office labeled SpotCrime as a commercial requester and a recurrent requester. SpotCrime believed those designations were improper, claiming that they counted as news media since the data was ultimately disseminated to the public.
The PAC determined that SpotCrime did not qualify as news media for the purposes of FOIA because they primarily compiled data and a primary reason for doing so was the sell the data to their subscribers, and that SpotCrime did not engage in creating original journalistic content. The PAC recognized that the dissemination of crime data could be a component of news media activities, but engaging in that one activity alone does not determine news media status. The PAC also determined that the Sheriff’s Office had properly designated SpotCrime as a commercial requester.
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Local Labs Media Services v Cook County 2017 PAC 49876 – Commercial FOIA Requester Reselling Data is Not News Media
This is a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) non-binding opinion issued by the Illinois Attorney General Public Access Counselor in response to a request for review submitted by Local Labs Media Services. The requester alleged that their request to the Cook County Clerk’s Office should be treated as coming from news media, however the PAC determined that the requester did not qualify as news media since they were simply repackaging data and selling it (at a starting price of $500). The requester therefore was not acting as news media as that term is defined in the FOIA, and that the Cook County Clerk did not need to release certain records because the requester’s purpose was commercial in nature.
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Kalven v City of Chicago, 2014 IL App 1121846 – Police Misconduct Complaints are Not Exempt from FOIA
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Illinois Attorney General Binding Opinion: Complaints Against Public Employees are Not Exempt from FOIA (2021 PAC 69011)
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