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City of Urbana Assistant City Attorney & FOIA Officer Curt Borman After several letters from the Illinois Attorney General indicating that Urbana’s new fees for public records are a violation the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, FOIA Officer Curt Borman...

This letter from the Illinois Attorney General’s Office may not appear terribly interesting at first glance.  So the City of Urbana didn’t try hard enough on their records search, so what?  This might be one of those situations that is too complicated to...

I have been speaking at Urbana Human Relations Commission (HRC) meetings for several months now, ever since they decided that the Urbana Human Rights laws don’t apply to the City of Urbana or its employees. This rather cowardly decision goes against everything written...

Urbana City Attorney James Simon delivered what can only be interpreted as a threat to residents who have been speaking out about corruption within the Urbana City government.  The Council was discussing an ordinance put forth by Mayor Diane Marlin and James Simon...

On July 25th, 2019 I sent a very simple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the City of Urbana.  I sought to understand why a previous FOIA request was delivered late and also determine if Human Resources Director Todd Rent was lying to me about a...

Urbana City staff continue to commit FOIA violations against the residents of Urbana.  This request was in regards to police complaints. Lizabeth Kay Meharry illegally assessed $20 in fees and also sought to charge for postage.  Meharry also claimed that...

At the July 20th City Council meeting, during a presentation about the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Urbana City Attorney James Simon made a great number of false claims (documented to some extent in my letter to the Urbana City Council here). One particular...

This article will be mainly comprised of two emails that I sent to the Urbana City Council.  The quick backstory is that after a number of complaints by residents (many from myself) about public records requests, the City of Urbana arranged for a presentation on...

Urbana City Council member Bill Brown released a statement on September 12th indicating that he will not seek a third term on the Council.  Mr. Brown did not respond when asked why he decided not to pursue another term. Brown’s statement: “I've told a few people...

It is hard to know how to respond when someone twice your age, a democratically elected official, and supposed community leader carefully calculates that committing crimes against her constituents is better than honest dialogue.  That is, after all, what Diane...

Mayor Marlin at a Council Meeting, August 2020 On Saturday morning, Mayor Marlin sent out an email to the Urbana City Council and City of Urbana Department heads describing a plan to regulate speech during public input at meetings of public bodies.  The relevant...