D113A should make sure
public records are public

I felt compelled to respond to the article, “Information requests bog down District 113A” (Oct. 23).

On Sept. 29, I submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act to the Lemont-Bromberek District 133A office, the contents of which are highlighted in the article. The subject request pertained to a meeting held in anticipation of litigation as a result of the School Board’s error in seat postings for the April election.

The purpose of the litigation was to stop the April ballots from being printed. This case continues to be a source of conflict. It is my intention to review the meeting contents for clarification on what the board understood, at the time of this meeting, in an attempt to resolve this conflict.

Twice each year, the district is required to make a determination to establish which, if any, of the minutes from prior closed sessions require continued confidentially. The timing of my request was such that it would be received on the day a determination was to be made.

As stated in my request, I knew the determination had not yet been made. As a compromise, I agreed to waive the time requirements afforded me by law.

I also knew that the contents of those minutes no longer required confidential treatment and as a matter of law should now be open. The board can’t keep them closed for the sake of convenience.
After reviewing prior minutes, I have been unable to find an instance where closed meeting minutes were made public.

We, as taxpayers, have two tools at our disposal. One is the power to vote, and the other is the ability to seek information from and about public bodies to hold them accountable.

If the district is overwhelmed fulfilling less than one FOIA request per day, post them on the Web site for all to see.

In some instances, the FOIA has helped the district. Last month, a woman’s repeated FOIA requests helped the district recover $5,000 from a vendor that had been overlooked. That is $5,000 that would otherwise have gone unpaid at a time where every dollar counts.

State officials gave the taxpayers even more power and an enforcement mechanism to hold officials accountable through the FOIA. Should we not have this ability?

Al Malley, Lemont