In recognition of Sunshine Week, Check CU presents the elected official who pioneered illegal public records denial schemes for the City of Urbana, Illinois. Charlie Smyth, in his role as Urbana City Clerk, devised several illegal and abusive schemes to shut down access to public records, some of which are still being used today.
A summary of just some of Smyth’s FOIA violations over the past few years are provided below, along with many links to past articles showing how journalists exposed his corruption and fought back.
A primary tactic that Smyth devised was to start declaring some Urbana residents to be “recurrent requesters”. Smyth did this so that he could delay Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) responses by months.
The FOIA does allow for such a provision in certain cases, but Smyth abused that provision by intentionally over counting FOIA requests so that he could declare individuals to be recurrent requesters.
One requester was the victim of this scheme for a year before the Illinois Attorney General finally declared that Smyth had over counted her FOIA requests and that she did not, in any way, qualify as a recurrent requester. You can read the entire story in this article:
How Urbana Officials Abused One FOIA Requester for a Year
Despite the determination issued by the Attorney General, City of Urbana Officials have refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing, and no apologies have been issued to the Urbana resident against whom Smyth initiated his extended campaign of unlawful abuse.
Smyth’s recurrent requester scheme was then used to charge thousands of dollars in illegal FOIA fees. If the illegal fees weren’t paid, the City would then deny the records entirely. Urbana residents were forced to repeatedly ask the Attorney General to cite the violations and force Urbana to release records:
Urbana Violated FOIA Law by Overcharging $768 in Fees
Urbana Dinged Again by Illinois Attorney General on FOIA & Postage Fees
Some of the victims of Smyth’s recurrent requester scheme were declared to be recurrent on their very first FOIA request. Urbana claimed that if someone did not agree to show a government ID, they could automatically be declared recurrent, made to wait months, and charged absurd fees. However, the FOIA simply does not permit public bodies to require ID:
City Of Urbana Wrongfully Demands Gov’t Issued Photo ID From FOIA Requesters
Smyth’s successor, FOIA Officer Curt Borman, followed Smyth’s example. Borman tried to eliminate the use of email to provide requested records because he wanted to be able to charge Urbana residents for USB thumb drives. Borman, a retired cop who was appointed by Mayor Diane Marlin, was especially fond of wrongfully denying police records.
Urbana Limits Access to Public Records with Crushing Fees
After Smyth got the ball rolling, FOIA problems with the City of Urbana compounded. The City had attempted to charge illegal fees on so many FOIA requests that when they began getting citations from the Attorney General, they also started to try to hide their unlawful fee scheme from the public.
Urbana’s New FOIA Officer Quietly Disappears Illegal FOIA Pricing Scheme
However, Urbana also refused to disclose the illegal FOIA fees that they had attempted to collect from residents, and that refusal in itself prompted another FOIA lawsuit:
City of Urbana Sued for Concealing Records on Illegal FOIA Fees
The scams being run by City of Urbana officials even extended to the City Attorney, James Simon:
James Simon Lies About FOIA Recurrent Requester Fees
After extensive public criticism, Charlie Smyth resigned his position in June of 2020: Urbana City Clerk Resigns Amidst Storm of Misconduct Allegations
However, many of Smyth’s unlawful records denials were still being reviewed, and by April of 2021, Urbana had been cited for FOIA violations more than a dozen times by the Illinois Attorney General in the prior two years. Urbana had to pay over $10k to settle at least one lawsuit as a result of Smyth’s denials, and another lawsuit is still pending.
Urbana Loses FOIA Lawsuit, Judge Rules Improper Denial of Public Records
After several news outlets exposed the unlawful FOIA schemes deployed by Smyth and his associates, Smyth’s wife, Audrey Ishii (also an Urbana public official) decided to retaliate. Ishii became furious and she joined University of Illinois Professor Erik Sacks in devising and promulgating a conspiracy theory which claimed that the local journalists who exposed the FOIA violations were actually terrorists. The leader of Ishii and Sacks’s conspiracy group was sued in federal court and eventually admitted guilt of tortious conduct, malicious intent, and making false statements with the intent to harm.
U of I Professor’s Terrorism Allegations Put to Rest after Federal Lawsuit
Urbana’s new City Attorney, David Wesner, also adopted Charlie Smyth’s recurrent requester scheme and it is still being used today. Wesner even carried the scheme over to Rantoul (Wesner is also the Village of Rantoul Attorney) and duplicated it there. Recurrent requester designations cannot be applied to news media, but Urbana did it anyways and refused to stop even after numerous complaints. After Rantoul copied Urbana, another lawsuit was filed:
Police Records Lawsuit Names Urbana, Rantoul, Champaign State’s Attorney (Illinois)
This FOIA lawsuit, as well as several others against Urbana, are currently ongoing.
Check CU commends efforts by journalists, nonprofits, and private individuals who have used their own resources, put themselves in the crosshairs, and taken a stand against unlawful and unethical attempts by public officials to thwart government transparency.
It is just amazing how much illegal crap these public officers do, then when they are caught red handed over and over, they still will refuse to admit that they did anything wrong. As always, their victims and the taxpayers end up being the ones who suffer because of it.