The Illinois Attorney General issued a determination today for two reviews of the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District (CUPHD). According to Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Silver, the CUPHD Board violated the Open Meetings Act (OMA) by failing to record a number of public meetings over the past two years.
AAG Silver also determined that CUPHD staff unlawfully delayed responding to a public records request seeking the meeting recordings.
This story now has a one year timespan. Check CU Founder Christopher Hansen contacted CUPHD FOIA Officer Patricia Robinson on March 21st, 2021 asking about CUPHD Board meeting recordings, and then formalized that inquiry as a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on April 11th, 2021. Though Illinois law requires public bodies to respond to records requests within five business days, Robinson and CUPHD HR Generalist Amy Roberts delayed that request for months.
AAG Silver wrote in his determination: “It is undisputed that the District did not provide a timely response to Mr. Hansen’s request. This office recognizes that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant challenges to gathering responsive records pursuant to FOIA. Nonetheless, the District should be mindful of its obligation to issue timely responses to FOIA requests by all persons in accordance with section 3(d) of FOIA, which remains unchanged.”
Contrary to the recognition given by Silver, Check CU recently published an article which showed that CUPHD FOIA Officer Robinson had made false claims to the IAG about their FOIA burdens increasing during the pandemic. In reality, the CUPHD had been receiving fewer FOIA requests than in previous years.
Check CU suspected likely OMA violations by the CUPHD Board when, even after seven months of unlawful delay, Robinson and Roberts still refused to supply thirty three CUPHD Board meeting recordings. The OMA does not require a public body to make recordings of in-person open session meetings, but all virtual meetings (the bulk of CUPHD’s meetings 2020-2022) must be fully recorded.
AAG Silver: “The Public Access Bureau also concludes that the District’s Board (Board) violated OMA in connection with its remote meetings on June 24, 2020; July 13, 2020; August 17, 2020; September 14, 2020; October 14, 2020; October 28, 2020; October 30, 2020; November 16, 2020; and January 11, 2021, by failing to maintain and make available to the public verbatim recordings.”
Check CU also showed that the CUPHD failed to approve and publicly post minutes of their meetings, but AAG Silver remained silent on that violation.
Violations of the Illinois Open Meetings act are crimes, by definition, but State’s Attorneys almost never prosecute them.
AAG Silver’s determination letter “FOIA and OMA Request for Review – 2021 PAC 68452; 68453” can be viewed here (click image for full 5 page PDF):
