Suit filed against Carlinville for withholding public records -

CARLINVILLE, IL. (ECWd) -

Yesterday I filed a four-count lawsuit against the City of Carlinville for its refusal to produce public records requested on January 16, 2017. Pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act ("FOIA"), they were supposed to respond within five working days after receiving the request. That did not happen.

What did happen is the city's attorney decided it would be a good idea to somehow claim the request was for commercial purposes and then tried to impose a fee of $200 before even gathering the requested records. That was unacceptable and violated the FOIA.

I then filed a "Request for Review" with the Attorney General's Public Access Counselor, and the city refused to answer the PAC's inquiry.

Finally, I filed a lawsuit in Macoupin County Circuit Court, Case number 2017-MR-25, seeking court orders declaring the city violated FOIA, that the request was not for commercial purposes, payment of my fees and costs, and for production of the public records requested.

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