Check CU filed a lawsuit today alleging that the City of Champaign willfully violated the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by refusing to provide records related to the Champaign County Community Coalition (CCCC).
Two days ago, Check CU published an article describing the founding and funding of the CCCC by the City of Champaign in 2010. The Coalition is now also funded with taxpayer dollars from more than a dozen public bodies, including the City of Urbana, the University of Illinois, and the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office.
The Coalition is organized and operated by full time employees of the City of Champaign, and they hold their meetings during working hours. The CCCC utilizes a City email address and phone number, and lists its physical address as the Champaign City Building.
The “Executive Committee” of the Coalition is made up of two dozen individuals, almost all of whom are public officials. The Committee is chaired by Champaign City Manager Dorothy Ann David, and membership includes, among others, State’s Attorney Julia Rietz, CUPHD Administrator Julie Pryde, County Sheriff Dustin Heuerman, U of I Police Chief Alice Cary, and Urbana City Administrator Carol Mitten.
In response to allegations that the CCCC was not following Open Meetings Act (OMA) requirements, the Illinois Attorney General Public Access Counselor (PAC) issued an opinion letter in January 2021 indicating that the Coalition was not a public body and therefore is not required to follow the OMA.
On January 25th, 2022, Check CU sent a FOIA request to the City of Champaign seeking records related to CCCC meetings. Assistant City Attorney Nancy Rabel fully denied that request on February 1st, citing the PAC’s 2021 opinion letter. Rabel argued that because the CCCC was not subject to the OMA, any records in the City’s possession related to the CCCC were also excluded from FOIA.
Rabel’s reasoning., applied to other types of records, would lead to absurd results. Using the same argument, the City of Champaign could deny all requests for police records because the Police Department is not subject to the OMA.
This exact type of unlawful FOIA denial was addressed in a binding PAC opinion in 2015. The PAC determined that Danville City Attorney David Wesner (now City Attorney for both Urbana and Rantoul) had violated FOIA when he claimed that the City did not have to provide records related to the Danville Housing Task Force (article here).
Civil Rights Law Firm Loevy & Loevy, based in Chicago, filed a complaint on behalf of Check CU Founder Christopher Hansen with the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court in Champaign, Illinois on March 21st, 2022. It can be viewed here (click image for full 11-page PDF):
