Illinois (ECWd) –
How many in Illinois knew of a state agency named “Illinois Office of Broadband“? Based on our research, they fall under the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Development. That is the same agency that has denied all requests for expenses of the Illinois offices overseas to include bank statements, along with failing to provide the most basic information for the boards under its direction, to include Open Meetings Act training certificates.
The Illinois Office of Broadband has ignored our FOIA request for Open Meetings Act Training Certificates, Freedom of Information Act Training Certificates, and meeting minutes where the board appointed a FOIA Officer. The actual request can be downloaded at this link or viewed below.
This appears to be yet another example of a failed government entity in terms of transparency. We have plenty of questions related to millions being spent on contracts by this agency, but as it stands, this agency has not answered the most basic FOIA request.
We provided them one last chance to comply by the end of business yesterday, and that too went unanswered. That being the case, we forwarded this FOIA denial to our attorney for potential legal action.
Broad Band FOIA
3 Responses
You ought to email their ethics officer which can be found here or here: https://oeig.illinois.gov/ethics/ethics-officers.html and https://eec.illinois.gov/ethics-officers.html for an Executive Order 16-4 misconduct complaint. Concealing a state record under the state records act is a crime which would fall under EO 16-4.
“Lawsuit” may be the only word they understand…sad.
IL has more government agencies, boards, commissions and other paid agencies than any other four states combined. They use these groups to pay off their political cronies not to mention themselves. This is payola of the worst kind and should be addressed by all candidates in our upcoming election! This broadband agency is just one more of the 5k already existing.