Paris, Ill. (ECWd) –
We finally received the invoices from District 95’s attorneys, through school district’s insurance company.
Defending against our FOIA lawsuit for a copy of a federal subpoena cost the school district’s insurance $71,874, paying the school district’s attorney $5,332 to deny the original FOIA request, and paying our attorneys through a settlement agreement cost $75,000, bring the total to more than $152,000 – for one document.
We urge local governments to pay attention to the Freedom of Information Act and weigh the costs of noncompliance.
We agree the costs are uncalled for, so was having to go through the courts to obtain public records, especially when the district was made aware of similar FOIA cases where subpoenas were determined to be subject to disclosure under FOIA, but they still withheld the document.
This issue started in mid-2023 under the previous administration.
4 Responses
And when they fight FOIAs this hard, you know there’s gold in those records 💯%.
Exactly. This is so uncalled for. These public officials should be the ones paying these attorney fees and not the taxpayers. That might straighten them up. But what can we expect when it’s the attorneys working for the public body who are trying to get THEM out of exposing things that make them look bad. I’ve gone toe to toe with a public body attorney who used the wrong exemption in the freedom of information act to back his claim. He wasn’t worth what our tax $$$ paid him for it.
Where is the accountability for this kind of waste?
The only people who don’t want to disclose the public truth are the people with something to hide.