The City of Urbana, Illinois appears to be continuing their tradition of extreme secrecy in regards to the operations and planning of their police department. Nearly one month ago, Mayor Diane Marlin announced her choice for the new Police Chief after a mysterious closed session meeting of the City Council which was described to the public with just one word: “Personnel”.
A one page memo indicated that retired Norfolk, VA Police Chief Larry Boone was Urbana’s sole finalist in their search for a new police chief to fill the vacancy that was announced fifteen months ago.
Check CU immediately sent a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the City of Urbana seeking records related to Larry Boone and his application to the Police Chief position. Urbana’s FOIA Officer, Ross McNeil, unlawfully delayed his response and after more than sixteen days he eventually denied all records related to Larry Boone.
Urbana FOIA Officer Ross McNeil: “Some records that could be deemed responsive to your request are exempt from disclosure because of one or more of the FOIA exemptions listed below. Therefore, these records have been withheld from the records being released to you. Specifically, the application of the finalist is being withheld pending his appointment by the Mayor and approval by the City Council. Persons who have not yet been appointed and approved continue to have an expectation of privacy in their application materials.”
What McNeil’s letter fails to describe is how the denial of these records is in the public interest, or how it complies with the 10 Shared Principles which Urbana adopted in 2020, and which lists “transparency” twice. As with all things related to policing in Urbana, it seems that the City simply wishes to keep the public in the dark as much as possible for as long as possible, despite flowery promises and resolutions.
It should also be noted that, within hours of Mayor Marlin’s Communications Specialist Bridget Broihahn emailing the April 3rd press release on the Larry Boone pick, Check CU wrote back to Broihahn asking what action would be taken if Boone was not ultimately approved by the City Council. A month later, Broihahn still has not responded to the question.
Urbana’s denial letter (along with the few uninteresting records they did supply), is supplied below.
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Everything sounds so Shady about this as if their trying to hide something??
Just post the public information if your not trying hide something!