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Health & Fitness

FOIA & the Lisle Library

I am writing to share my experience with FOIA and the Lisle Library. 

After reading about the gift cards purchased by the Village of Lisle for elected officials, I decided to send in a FOIA to other local gov't agencies to see if this was common practice in Lisle.

On Aug 23, 2013 I submitted a FOIA to the Lisle Library. This is what I requested:

  • 1. Copies of payment records for purchases of local (within 50 miles) meals and food purchases. July 1, 2012 - June 30, 2013.

  • 2. Copy of policy ordinance currently in effect regarding use of public funds for local meals, food for parties, etc., and authorized per diem amounts for meals for travel. 

  • 3. Copy of all payment records for purchases of gifts, gift cards, employee recognition, employee bonuses, gifts for elected officials. July 1, 2012 - June 30, 2013.

  • 4. Copy of policy ordinance currently in effect regarding use of or prohibition of use of public funds for gifts, recognition and bonuses.

On Aug 28-29 I received a partial response. The Library said they had "NO POLICY" regarding use of public funds for gifts, bonuses, and local meals and food purchases. I also received the voucher logs of checks cut for the entire 2012-2013 fiscal year with account numbers. 

I inquired about the missing payment records for purchases of gifts, gift card, local meals, food and bonuses and recognition:

  • "I requested payment records for specific categories of spending and you've provided a list of all spending of the government entity in the specified time period. "Payment records" includes the following: signed purchase order, signed and approved payment voucher, invoice, bill, receipt, etc. Will you be providing the payment records for the categories of spending requested? If there is no spending on local meals, food, gifts, gift cards, etc., please let me know."

I received the following response on Aug 30, 2013:

  • "The Library released payment records responsive to the scope of your request.  That is what we determine to be "payment records." Your follow up request is significant, and changes the scope of your FOIA.   I placed a call into our attorney's office, and I will be able to speak with him on Tuesday about this request before we provide a follow up.   You are also welcome to call me today so we can speak personally about this request - at the minimum we will need a good deal more time to provide follow up data.    I would like our attorney to review this and make a recommendation on how to proceed."

Several days later, on September 5, (13 calendar days after submitting the request) the FOIA officer provided an additional response: 

  • "After discussion with our Financial Manager and a consultation with our attorney as far as the best course of action we would respond: 
  • The Library provided payment records for a full year with the information requested clearly marked with account numbers.  Each entry has a notation denoting the purpose of the expenditure.
  • To respond to your expanded request, the Library needs additional time.  Responding to your request requires a staff member to spend several days of research, review, and scanning documents.  This time expenditure burdens our staff already performing necessary duties of Library administration (we have only one Financial Manager).
  • I ask you to consider narrowing the scope of your request. I invite you to my office to confer in an attempt to reduce your request to manageable proportions.
  • In the alternative, I request an extension to 9/20/13 to afford us time to respond to your expanded request."

Well, today is Sept 23, 2013, now 31 calendar days after I submitted a FOIA request to the Lisle Library for copies of payment records for use of public funds for gifts, gift cards, bonuses, recognition and local meals during fiscal year 2012-2013. 

I am still waiting for a response. 

Find out what's happening in Lislewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

I specifically limited my request to this past fiscal year since those payment records are subject to audit for the annual financial report and would be generally available to the auditor if he requested them. 

Frankly, I was hoping that there would be no records at all for the use of public funds for gifts, gift cards, bonuses, recognition and local meals. But apparently there are so many records for this past year, that the Library cannot comply with FOIA even within 31 days. 

Find out what's happening in Lislewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Monthly Voucher Logs 

July 2012

Mar 2013 

Apr 2013

May 2013

Jun 2013

_____________________

PS. The photo of George Clooney has absolutely nothing to do with this. 
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