You must produce the public record!

Tina Fey, if you are reading this, you have just lost your spot as the No. 1 impersonator.

Check out this great advice on FOIA responses, attributed to Ancel Glink, a McHenry County law firm that represents numerous municipal and other governmental bodies including, until recently, Grafton Township. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH0KG4Oc6Vw&NR=1 (and watch Part 2)

It has got to be one of the best jokes of the year, and those of us who regularly generate FOIA requests are laughing, which we sorely needed to do, because of the pitiful attempts by "public bodies" to withhold information.

I have described FOIA as the Public's strong-arm to force public bodies to produce what they ought to give up without a fight. Of course, government public bodies hate that definition.

You should be able to make a simple request to a public body and receive a reply promptly. Too many, though, hide behind the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and reply that a FOIA Request must be filed. No, that's wrong. If it's in the public record, they ought to reply.

Dorr Township has been a classic example of attempts to withhold information. Earlier this year I requested a copy of Quinn Keefe's application for appointment as the Township Clerk. My FOIA request was denied. Now, it's not like everyone in Woodstock didn't already know that Quinn had been the Executive Director of the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce for about six years, but Dorr Township redacted that prior employment.

Upon what advice did they do that? Legal counsel for Dorr Township is Mark Saladin, partner in the law firm of Zanck, Coen & Wright, P.C., of Crystal Lake, and now, newly-appointed member of the Woodstock City Council (and also candidate in the Spring 2011 election).

Hurry and watch this video before it disappears.