On September 2nd, 2020 the Illinois Attorney General released a determination letter indicating that the City of Urbana was in violation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The City attempted to charge a requester $778.60 on a single FOIA request whereas the FOIA law only permits the City to charge for storage media, which the City priced at only $10.63.
According to the Public Access Counselor (PAC), the remaining $767.97 in fees violated the FOIA law. Curt Borman, the new FOIA Officer for the City of Urbana (assigned by Mayor Marlin), was responsible for issuing the fees. Borman, a retired police officer, also serves as an assistant city attorney for Urbana.
The FOIA request, which I submitted myself on May 15th, 2020, has still not been filled more than four months after submission, despite my having paid the fees. It is worth noting that this particular FOIA request mostly dealt with police records.
On July 10th, Mayor Marlin announced in a memo that she was in favor of the illegal FOIA fees. On July 20th, City Attorney James Simon gave a presentation defending the City’s new fee structure and their liberal application of FOIA exemptions. Simon and Borman claimed everything they were doing complied with the FOIA law.
The determination by the Illinois Attorney General puts James Simon, Curt Borman, and Diane Marlin squarely in the wrong.
This is as good a time as any to note that Urbana, for many years before Curt Borman took power, was always in the habit of providing FOIA documents by email with no fees. I have personally received FOIA documents via email many times from the City of Urbana. The only time Urbana had ever used discs was for video, and they never charged for those discs. Email is also the transmission method used by every other public body with whom I’ve submitted FOIA requests. At time of writing, the Urbana City website still shows email delivery as an option for FOIA requests:
Now, Curt Borman seeks to have particular requesters pay for discs and flash drives (in addition to myself, I am aware of at least four other people who are being charged for flash drives). City staff are refusing to provide public records by email, often forcing people to physically travel to the City Building during the pandemic to interact with staff to pay fees and pickup flash drives.
The really nasty aspect (and I suspect the real goal) of charging for media, is that Borman and his cronies have threatened to entirely deny the FOIA request if the small payment for the disk or flash drive is not made by a particular date. This gives Borman an additional opportunity to deny the request based on his invention of a new obstacle.
I find it a rather impressive feat of bull-headed arrogance for Curt Borman to have attempted to illegally charge a requester $768 in fees, only to turn around four months later to nickel & dime for some dvd’s. I have to imagine that Borman expended more than $10.63 in City resources to draft this email and for the City to accept and process the cash payment.
-Christopher Hansen, Urbana
The following documents support the claims I’ve made above:
Urbana FOIA Request Submitted 2020-05-15 (Labeled 2020-F-276)
Urbana Response to FOIA Request 2020-F-276
Urbana FOIA Appeal on 2020-F-276 (PAC 63421)
Urbana FOIA Appeal on 2020-F-276 (PAC 63421) Curt Borman Response
Urbana FOIA Appeal on 2020-F-276 (PAC 63421) Curt Borman Response Reference to PAC63412
Urbana FOIA Appeal on 2020-F-276 (PAC 63421) Determination of Violation
Urbana Supplemental Response to FOIA Request 2020-F-276 (After Appeal)
Here is a video of Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin advocating for the illegal FOIA fees: