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 the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This presentation was given on July 20th of 2020. The City’s repository of records for that meeting can be viewed by clicking here. I’ll also embed the meeting video here:
The “presentation” was primarily a ploy by Marlin and staff to attempt to publicly demonize Urbana residents who seek public records. It was shameful and frequently contained lies and false information. There was some chatter about having a “FOIA Round 2”, but it never seemed like that was going to happen, so I eventually issued these two letters to the Urbana City Council, both sent sequentially on August 17th, 2020.
The first letter was titled “Since There Probably Won’t be a “FOIA Round 2”:
“Dear Council & Mayor,
I’ve been waiting for the “FOIA round 2” discussion that was mentioned at the July 20 meeting wherein there was a presentation given by city staff on FOIA. I’m not sure that will ever happen, so I’ll write some thoughts to you now regarding that presentation.
Multiple times, James Simon claimed that the PAC was in the habit of leaning pro-requester. I am not aware of any person in the state, other than Simon, who thinks this is the case. Public bodies are well-aware that the PAC is a wonderful place to send a requester so that their efforts get lost forever, and the requester becomes entirely burned out by the administrative burden. I have PAC complaints that are years old now which haven’t received any final response. Here’s an article for you to read: https://www.propublica.org/article/illinois-foia-public-records-open-meetings-laws-attorney-general-lisa-madigan
I’d be very excited to hear about your own experiences taking complaints to the PAC.
As far as I can tell, every FOIA request shown by James Simon in his Powerpoint during the July 20 presentation was fully denied by the City. The City never even attempted to fill any part of those requests, they were just fully denied. I’m not sure why the Mayor was claiming that staff were spending lots of time on these. Nonsense. Also, the claim that staff try to work with requesters to narrow requests is a claim that is alien to me. Jim must be thinking of a different city.
James Simon spent plenty of time harping on Section 7.5 FOIA exemptions. These are mandatory (shall, not may) exemptions. This was entirely for show, since 7.5 is almost never invoked by public bodies. I searched multiple years of my FOIA history and I found only one instance where 7.5 was invoked. It involved police body worn camera video for an incident wherein both Urbana and UI Police responded to a call. I personally appeared in the video and spoke to the officers. After I sent FOIA requests to both public bodies, both Urbana and U of I initially denied the BWC video based on Section 7.5. U of I then immediately withdrew the exemption after I pointed out that I appeared in the video. Their FOIA Officer, Matthew Rogina, wrote the following, and gave a link to download the video without charges for discs or thumb drives, or all the nickel & diming that Urbana is engaged in:
“Mr. Hansen,
Upon further review of this request, the University has determined that the individual in the video is you. As such, the exemptions initially raised are no longer applicable. The video is available at the below link:”
In contrast, two months later, the City of Urbana is still arguing that their video is exempt, and even if it were not exempt they would charge me hundreds of dollars. [Since writing this letter, the PAC has determined that both Urbana’s fees and their exemption on the video were both illegal – see PAC 63412]
It is the case that virtually all exemptions invoked by the City of Urbana are voluntary exemptions. Meaning, the City is choosing not to release records. As best I can tell, this tool is primarily invoked to prevent residents from learning about the misconduct of city employees, especially police officers.
Both city staff and Mayor Marlin have repeatedly lied about the number of recurrent requesters in Urbana. They have repeatedly claimed that staff have only invoked this punishment upon two people. This is a bold-faced lie.
Speaking of recurrent requesters, Simon’s presentation was entirely lacking an explanation for exactly how they managed to rack up that FOIA request count so high. As I’ve stated before, Urbana plays games with request counts, and I famously have one FOIA request to which Urbana managed to assign seven different request numbers. I personally have numerous examples of multiple FOIA numbers being assigned to the same request.
Both city staff and Mayor Marlin have repeatedly lied about the nature in which fees are being assessed. They have repeatedly claimed that the fees are only being charged to recurrent requesters. This is a bold-faced lie.
James Simon went on spewing nonsense about needing to protect individual’s credit card numbers. This is entirely theater on Mr. Simon’s part. No one is asking for anyone’s credit card numbers.
Simon did say that about 80% of FOIA requests are for police records, then he specifically cited the benefits of police secrecy. I wonder who on the Council is willing to publicly echo those sentiments?
Simon then continued on his path of buffoonery to make wild threats about the release of his own personal information, indicating that he would take legal action to prevent the release of his home address. No one cares about Simon’s address.
What Simon did not talk about is the pile of FOIA violations committed by Urbana city staff. Put exemptions aside for a moment, what about all the FOIA requests that the City just flat-out ignored? What about the many many many times that Urbana staff have selectively omitted records and those records were only drawn out after painstaking arguments?
Here’s what I think: I think the Mayor and the Council members have nearly zero experience with FOIA. I think Urbana is, by far, the most secretive and non-transparent public body in the county, and I have plenty of evidence to back that claim. I think city staff are running a show where they play games with records to protect each other regarding misconduct and illegal behavior. I think this entirely too-sedentary council is not going to do anything about it.
You should, but almost certain will not, do the following:
-Publicly apologize for all the false statements regarding FOIA requesters and fees. Recite the facts correctly this time.
-Knock off the mafia nonsense with your fees, and realize that people are asking for records for a reason. My personal reason for requesting reocrds is so that I can fix all the things that you have allowed to break, and I’m working for free.
-Hire a new City Attorney, and find a new FOIA Officer. Urbana deserves public servants who have a moral compass and who have values that align with the residents of Urbana.
-Christopher Hansen”
This is the second letter, titled “Calling Simon’s Bluff”, and it was sent to the Mayor, the City Council, and also directly to James Simon:
“At the July 20 FOIA presentation, James Simon made a number of false statements, which I have already pointed out in my previous email. One particular statement, rather a threat, was in regards to the hypothetical release of his own home address.
I cannot imagine what compelled Simon to make such a silly and childish threat. I can only interpret this as some kind of attempt to frighten the City Council from making any decisions that would result in the City being more transparent. Mr. Simon probably wishes to protect his peers from public scrutiny, as do all corrupt officials.
I revisited the meeting video to write down Simon’s exact words:
“So they FOIA, ‘give me Jim Simon’s home address’. That’s personal and private information. I guarantee you, if that happened, I would be in court in about 8 minutes to prevent that, and if I was too late to prevent it, I’d be set seeking hefty damages.”
Mr. Simon knows better than this. The problem is, he just doesn’t give a moment’s thought to lying to the City Council and to the public.
Below, please find an email response to a FOIA request from Mark Shelden, the Champaign County Recorder. You will see that I’ve sent a FOIA request asking for the information that Mr. Simon claims is “personal and private”, and therefor out of the purview of FOIA. Unlike the City of Urbana, with your constant extensions and exemptions and fees, Mr. Shelden responded as soon as he saw my email at the beginning of the business day, and he provided exactly the documents I’d asked for.
The records clearly show Mr. Simon’s home address, his deed, and his mortgage statement recorded with the county. Contrary to Simon’s lies, this is actually public information, not private information. I can see the signatures of Mr. Simon, and his wife Shelley, and I can see that they got an amazing mortgage rate at 3.25%. They are also taking two property tax exemptions and somehow holding a $225k property tax valuation on a home that they bought for $330k. Real savers – good for them. None of this was even slightly interesting to me until Simon raised the issue at a public meeting. No one ever cared about Mr. Simon’s house.
However, the cat is out of the bag now, and according to Simon’s “guarantee”, he will be in court immediately to sue Mark Sheldon for “hefty damages”.
I will be watching the court filings closely this week. If I don’t see a filing by Simon on this matter, then I think it would be appropriate for Mr. Simon to publicly apologize for his asinine threat. The Council should also meet to specifically discuss Mr. Simon’s future employment, since his sense of ethics clearly does not align with the values of the City of Urbana.
-Christopher Hansen”
Appended to the second letter was a FOIA request, filled by the Champaign County Recorder of deeds:
James Leo Simon & Shelley M Simon Mortgage (608 S McKinley Ave Champaign)
James Leo Simon & Shelley M Simon Deed (608 S McKinley Ave Champaign)
They Mayor, the Council, and James Simon all ignored my letters. After two weeks, I followed up with each council member individually. Maryalice Wu, William Colbrook, Shirese Hursey
Jared Miller was the only person who followed up with a significant response, indicating his ongoing concern with Urbana’s FOIA tactics. Bill Brown gave some anecdotes on his own FOIA requests and said he was looking into the fees, which he thought were “silly”.
Dennis Roberts wrote:
“Chris,
Curt Borman is the city attorney who has been the point person responding to all inquiries regarding contested FOIA requests. I have read several of his replies to individuals. He has carefully detailed the city’s position based entirely on Federal and State statute. I find them completely understandable and appropriate.
DR”
I was very disappointed that my own city council member, Julie Laut, could not conjure up an intelligent response and then proceeded to ignore every attempt to follow up.
