Elected officials should provide as much information as possible to their constituents, Gov. Pat Quinn said Wednesday during questioning by reporters in Chicago about ongoing problems facing Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. The governor apparently was not referring to his own administration, which this summer refused to turn over texts or emails that would have shed light on the how staffers chose the location of a southern Illinois news conference in July.
Illinois Watchdog in July sought access to communications among Quinn’s staff and others about his July 16 appearance at a Waltonville farm in southern Illinois after rumors abounded that his staff changed the location of the news conference to dodge state workers and families who intended to protest his plan to shutter state facilities.
The governor’s spokeswoman denied the rumors but Quinn’s Freedom of Information officer, Benno Weisberg, withheld 10 emails in their entirety, citing the state open-records law’s “preliminary drafts” exemption that allows them to keep secret anything that expresses opinions or recommendations.
He later found five additional emails, which were released. Three simply contained the text of news articles about Quinn’s appearance that were emailed among his staffers. A fourth was a redacted invitation from the governor’s office to a local public official to attend the news conference. The fifth was an apparent email exchange that was released under FOIA with every word blacked out – including the location of the event, even though the address was provided prior to the news conference so reporters could show up, as well as dates and times of the emails and the names of the senders and recipients.
You can read Jayette's full report at: http://watchdog.org/59272/il-quinn-has-opportunity-to-set-openness-example-for-jackson/
In the pic: Governor Quinn's response to a FOIA request on how he set the location of a press conference.
3 comments:
Full disclosure from everyone else. Not quinn, madigan, or cullerton, the 3 main problems in Illinois politics.
"ILLINOIS" the laughing stock of this nation!
This is a classic case of, "Do as I say, not as I do." It's typical in Il-annoy politics. No one wants to be held accountable for their own actions.
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