In December of 2015, the City of Danville was cited by the Illinois Attorney General (IAG) for a rather flagrant violation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by Danville City Attorney David Wesner.
Wesner refused to provide public records related to the Danville Housing Task Force, a public body organized by the City of Danville to assist the City in creating their five-year housing strategy.
Danville resident Kevin Flynn sent his FOIA request on August 31st, 2015, asking for meeting minutes and other documents created by the Task Force. David Wesner responded that same day, arguing that the Housing Task Force was not a public body and therefore not subject to FOIA. Wesner refused to supply any documents.
Mr. Flynn sent a “request for review” to the IAG Public Access Counselor (PAC) on September 1st, 2015, alleging that Wesner had violated FOIA. Wesner made a number of fallacious arguments to the PAC, including an attempt to cite a City of Champaign case involving text messages during Council meetings, but the PAC said that case was not applicable to the Danville matter.
Counsel to the Attorney General, Michael Luke, explained in his determination letter that even if Wesner was correct in his bizarre claim that Housing Task Force was not a public body, it still wouldn’t matter. Mr. Flynn’s FOIA request was sent to the City of Danville, which is undoubtedly a public body. The City of Danville was obligated by law to supply any records in their possession related to public business, including their Housing Task Force.
Wesner’s FOIA violation not only landed a determination of violation from the IAG, but the PAC issued their response as a “binding opinion”. Binding opinions are only issued by the PAC when a violation is clear enough that the IAG is willing to litigate a lawsuit with the public body if needed.
Including the Danville violation cited here, the PAC only issued twelve binding opinions on FOIA in the entire state of Illinois in 2015. Danville received another binding opinion of FOIA violation in 2020 for denying police records – one of only seven such citations issued by the PAC in all of 2020.
As of 2018, when David Wesner was last working for Danville, he was receiving a salary of more than $96,000. Wesner now serves as Village Attorney for the Village of Rantoul, and in early 2021, the City of Urbana also acquired Wesner as their new City Attorney (he now works for both localities at the same time). Wesner has also been hired by the City of Champaign for legal work (for example, serving as a hearing officer for a human rights complaint in 2021).
As a result of a recent unlawful FOIA denial in his capacity as Rantoul Village Attorney, David Wesner will now have to defend a lawsuit filed against the Village in December of 2021.
The Illinois Attorney General determination of FOIA violation by the City of Danville was issued on December 15th, 2015, labeled PAC opinion 15-014 on Request for Review 2015 PAC 37249, and can be viewed here (click image for full 9-page PDF):
