Algonquin Township, Bob Miller, feature, McHenry County, McHenry County Board Chairman

Algonquin Township Road District – Jennie McCracken denied request for review

BY KIRK ALLEN & JOHN KRAFT

ON March 1, 2019

McHenry Co. (ECWd) -

"For the reasons set forth below, the Public Access Bureau concludes that no further action is warranted in this matter."

Jennie McCracken, a McHenry County resident and friend of the Bob Miller family according to the NWH, filed a request for review for a Freedom of Information Act request that she did not file. She filed this request for review based on an FOIA request submitted to the Algonquin Township Road District by another citizen.

"On February 19, 2019, this office received your Request for Review challenging the response by Algonquin Township Road District ( District) to a FOIA request by a named individual. The named individual appears to have sought a list of users blocked by the Township' s Highway Department ( Department) from posting to the Department' s Facebook page. You assert that the District' s response to the named individual' s FOIA request is
incomplete."

This particular FOIA request generated numerous questions on FOIA and we published this article in hopes people would better understand the dynamics of the FOIA process and how it may play out on the FOIA in question.

While the person who actually submitted the FOIA request in question can seek a request for review on their FOIA, it is clear, McCracken has no such standing to request such a review for someone else.

"The named individual who filed the FOIA request with the District did not submit this Request for Review or sign it. Moreover, you have not asserted that the named individual submitted the request on behalf of a partnership, firm, organization or association that you are designated to represent. Because you, rather than the person whose FOIA request was allegedly denied, signed the Request for Review, it does not meet the requirements of section 9. 5( a) of FOIA. Thus, we have determined that no further action is warranted in this matter."

You can download the PAC letter at this link or view below.

PAC opinion on FOIA -McCracken

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