The Orland Park Public Library (OPPL) is not exactly an open book when it comes to providing information about its own workings, according to the Edgar County Watchdogs (ECW).
The ECW is arguing on its Illinois Leaks website that the library is refusing to comply with Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests despite being forced to pay out $55,000 from a 2014 FOIA case.
The current dispute is centered on the library’s refusal to turn over information related to how the library is spending public funds. The library has countered that it has already produced the information being requested and cited privacy concerns.
Mary Weimer, director of the Orland Park Public Library
| Jeff Vorva/Tribune
“Here, the Orland Park Public Library appears to want to obscure who exactly is spending the Library’s money so frivolously or make it harder for the public to determine who is writing the Library’s incident reports (which document crimes, misdeeds, and dangers in this suburban Chicago library),” the ECW posted. “There is no provision of the Illinois FOIA statute that allows the OPPL to do this and completely conceal the names of these parties involved.”
The ECW also alleges that the library wrongfully redacted information from incident reports and spending documents. The group said it's the same kind of action that cost the library $55,000 in a previous case.
"A reasonable person would have learned from past mistakes and vowed to never again toy with the FOIA statute in these ways, but history has shown there are few reasonable (or sane) people at the helm of the Orland Park Public Library,” the ECW argued.
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