McHenry County Blog

Readership is typically down during holiday periods, but it appears as if at least one reporter took a look on Monday.

That was the day McHenry County Blog revealed the United States Post Office’s investigation of the Huntley School District.

The source?

An answer from a McHenry County Blog Freedom of Information request.

So, what’s it all about?

The Daily Herald’s Jameel Naqvi reports that

“according to school board Vice President Tony Quagliano, (the complaint) alleges District 158 sent voters intentionally misleading information in a district newsletter before the 2004 referendum.”

So, not only was the B.E.S.T. tax hike political action committee sending out false information, but the school district itself was as well.

A Crystal Lake High School District 155 school superintendent, one whom I respected, came this/close to losing his pension for similar use of school resources in support of a referendum.

The news article reports that district officials say a former superintendent was named in a complaint, but won’t fess up who it was.

Not too tough a mystery to unravel.

“Officials would not reveal who was named, but the alleged activity occurred sometime before (Steve) Swanson left the district and after his interim successor, Robert Hammon, was hired,” Naqvi reported.

Steve Swanson was superintendent from 2001 until he and then-finance officer Paul Halverson resigned in 2005, after public outcry over misinformation distributed as part of the referendum campaign.

The blatantly false campaign information led to

• the election of Larry Snow,


• the re-working of tax cap legislation, in which Larry Snow and Tony Quagliano provided their expertise, to prevent similar lie-based referendum campaigns in the future and, subsequently, and


• the election of a second reform-minded inquiring citizen—Aileen Seedorf—to the Huntley school board.

This led to a blow-back by organizers and active participants in the B.E.S.T. referendum effort at a recent Huntley School Board meeting. The resignations of Snow and Seedorf were demanded. In addition, millionaire Michael Leucht ran a full-page ad in the Northwest Herald calling for two board members to resign.

No reason to let financial impropriety or mail fraud to get in the way of a fight to retain total control over a malfunctioning local government, I guess.

Labels: Aileen Seedorf, FOI, Huntley School District 158, Larry Snow, Mail Fraud, Michael Leucht, Paul Halverson, Robert Hammon, Steve Swanson, Tax Cap, Tony Quagliano

Former Northwest Herald reporter Allison Smith tells of District 300's allowing Freedom of Information requests over the internet in the following press release:

D300 launches online program for Freedom of Information

CARPENTERSVILLE – Beginning today, School District 300 will offer Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) forms and documents *ONLINE* as a public courtesy.

The District has created a Webpage devoted to this new program. Simply go to www.d300.org and click on the “Freedom of Information Act” alphabetical link.

In the spirit of public access, District 300’s online program goes well above and beyond what the law requires. It helps make D300 a state leader in public access to information, with few if any other public bodies in Illinois now providing this service. It has accordingly received early praise from the Illinois Attorney General's Office.

The Webpage conveniently provides all of the following online and for no charge:

• Downloadable form for requesting documents, and easy instructions
• All D300 documents released in response to a FOIA request (within 2 business days of their completion), beginning with those requests received in September 2007
• Summary reports to the School Board of recent FOIA requests and their status
• A schedule of allowable copy fees for any requestor who would also like a hard copy (on paper or CD) of the District’s response in addition to the *FREE* electronic copy automatically available online
• A brief overview of citizens’ rights for filing or appealing a FOIA request
• Helpful guides from the Illinois Attorney General's Office regarding citizen rights under both FOIA and the Illinois Open Meetings Act

The new online FOIA program continues D300’s commitment to expanding its Website offerings to better engage its community and more fully use the technology available. During the past year, D300’s online additions have included:

• School Board meeting packets
• bills payable listings
• press releases
• staff presentations to the School Board
• and much more.

In tandem with the new online FOIA program, D300 will step up its efforts this year to proactively post more public documents online. The District will also work to make it easier for Website visitors to navigate the abundance of financial, curricular, and other D300 documentation already offered online.

Labels: District 300, FOI, Freedom of Information Act

I have commented on the money that the City of Crystal Lake spends on postage when I file a Freedom of Information request.

I regularly receive certified letters. The cost is now up to $5.21 each.

In the latest reply, I noticed that the price for a copy of a document page has leaped to 80 cents.

Certainly that is not what it costs to copy a piece of paper.

Think this is an attempt to stifle the dissemination of information Crystal Lake’s city fathers and mothers don’t want people taking home?

Labels: Crystal Lake, FOI, Freedom of Information Act

You’d think that when one public entity does a study for another public entity that maybe, just maybe, the study would be in the public domain.

I read about a study that Amtrak performed for the Illinois Department of Transportation.

It has to do with starting a one-train a day run to and from Dubuque, Iowa, but my interest is what it says about the possibility of the passenger train going through Huntley and Marengo.

I got details from Mark Magliari, Amtrak’s Chicago spokesman, but I wanted to read the report.

The March 22nd reply:

Your request has been denied for the following reason:

c. The requested records are exempt from inspection and copying pursuant to 5ILCS 140/7 (1) (f).

It’s our old friend from the Freedom of Information Act:

(f) Preliminary drafts, notes, recommendations, memoranda and other records in which opinions are expressed, or policies or actions are formulated, except that a specific record or relevant portion of a record shall not be exempt when the record is publicly cited and identified by the head of the public body. The exemption provided in this paragraph (f) extends to all those records of officers and agencies of the General Assembly that pertain to the preparation of legislative documents.

That’s the same excuse used by McHenry County College.

Labels: Amtrak, FOI, Freedom of Information Act, IDOT, Illinois Department of Transportation, McHenry County College