In the spring of 2021, Check CU published an article about denial of public records by the City of Champaign which resulted in a lawsuit filed against the City on March 31st, 2021.
The unlawful Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) denial was issued by Assistant City Attorney Jennifer Glover Bannon in response to a request for copies of human rights complaints received by the City. Bannon had proclaimed in a public meeting of the Champaign Human Relations Commission (HRC) that the Commission members themselves were not allowed to see human rights complaints. This proclamation was contrary to the very purpose of the HRC and was nonsensical since anyone could acquire the complaints through FOIA.
Check CU issued such a FOIA request, but Bannon gave an incoherent reason for denying the records which could not be reconciled with the FOIA statute.
Check CU acquired the services of Loevy & Loevy, a civil rights law firm based in Chicago, who filed the lawsuit with Sixth Judicial Circuit Court on March 31st.
On May 5th, Jennifer Bannon issued a new response to the original FOIA request, providing all of the requested records, and the City of Champaign offered to pay legal fees to the plaintiff’s attorneys in the amount of $5,000.
A copy of the settlement agreement is shown below (click for full 4-page PDF):
Rogue “civil servants”!