Park District reveals names of five applicants for board vacancy, but withholds all other information

The Park District of La Grange today disclosed the names of five individuals it said expressed formal interest in being appointed to fill a vacancy on its board of commissioners.

But the district refused to disclose any additional information regarding the applicants, including their home addresses, despite a state requirement that board members reside within the boundaries of the park district.

The five individuals are listed here, along with addresses obtained from whitepages.com, an online phone directory:

• Bradley Belcaster, 124 N Edgewood Ave
• Jim Boo, 1327 Mason Dr
• James Fornaciari, 930 S Spring Ave
• Dan Shoemaker, 116 N Stone Ave
• Julie Workman, 233 S Park Ave

Belcaster is a La Grange real estate broker who was contracted by the Park District in 2007 to help negotiate the sale of a portion of Gordon Park to developer Atlantic Realty Partners (ARP). He has continued on as a consultant during the Park District's repeated, and so far unsuccessful, attempts to complete the sale, which has been blocked in Cook County Circuit Court by residents opposed to the loss of parkland. Belcaster is paid $200 an hour for his services, according to his own court testimony.

Boo unsuccessfully sought election to the park board in 2009. He finished fourth behind incumbents Tim Kelpsas, Rob Ashby and Chris Walsh, all of whom were re-elected. Boo, along with Ashby and Walsh, received the endorsement of the La Grange Citizens Council.

Workman, an attorney, was a paid spokesperson for Citizens for a Great Gordon Park, which successfully advocated voter support for a Nov. 2008 referendum approving sale of the parkland to ARP. For her services, Workman received $3,500 from a contribution of $30,000 made to the organization by the developer, according to the group's filing with the Illinois elections board. 

Fornaciari and Shoemaker have no public record of recent activity related to the Park District.

The Park District released the names of the applicants only after La Grange Today publisher Thom Rae March 3 filed a request under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

The Park District withheld the applicants' addresses citing an exemption to the Act that protects an individual's "private information" from disclosure.

As defined by the Act, "private information means unique identifiers, including a person's social security number, driver's license number, employee identification number, biometric identifiers, personal financial information, passwords or other access codes, medical records, home or personal telephone numbers, and personal email addresses. Private information also includes home address and personal license plates, except as otherwise provided by law or when compiled without possibility of attribution to any person."

Under the Illinois Park District Code, "Each member of the governing board of any park district shall [...] be a legal voter of and reside within such district."

The Park District also refused to disclose any additional information provided in writing by the applicants, stating, "The Park District does not have an application to fill board vacancies. Accordingly, the Park District does not have a document to provide."

Rae said he requested copies of "any application data" provided by the individuals, not simply a copies of a non-existent standard form.

For example, the Park District did not provide a copy of Boo's letter of application, which is known to exist because Boo on his own sent a copy to La Grange Today.

The Act clearly states, "All records in the custody or possession of a public body are presumed to be open to inspection or copying."

Rae said he likely will ask the Illinois Attorney General's office to review the Park District's decision to withhold records in this case.

Comments

[Jim Boo]

Belcaster Realty Group received payments of $35,231 from the PDLG in the fiscal year ending April 30, 2009 per the PDLG Annual Statement.

[Joe Bagodonuts]

So you criticize the Park District for not following the act, but when the act clearly states that they can't release home addresses, you complain about that too.

Sounds like you are never happy and it is a no win situation for the Park District. No matter what they do, you will complain.

How about congratulating them for following the Act and not giving out those home addresses?

[Thom Rae]

Joe,

Nowhere does the Illinois FOIA state that public bodies are required to withhold home addresses or other "exempted" personal information, except when mandated by some other law.

The law's only requirement is that all documents be accessible to the public unless an exemption applies.

Release of most exempted information is at the discretion of the governing body, and they tend to err on the side of caution, generally making public only information that is not exempted.

But note that, in the case of home addresses, the FOIA specifically states that the exemption does not apply if "otherwise provided by law."

As the Illinois Park District Code states that "[e]ach member of the governing board of any park district shall [...] be a legal voter of and reside within such district," I would argue that disclosing home addresses in this case is a useful and appropriate way to inform the public of the applicants' eligibility to hold the public office to which they seek appointment.

Any additional information submitted by the applicants stating their reasons and qualifications for appointment to the board also would be of value to the public, in the same manner as information provided by a candidate seeking to the fill board a seat through the public election process.

The Park District denied my FOIA request for that information on the basis that it did not provide the applicants with a form to fill out and therefore no relevant documents existed.

Information does not have to be entered into a standardized form in order to be considered an application.

For example, a letter submitted to the Park District by Jim Boo, and copied to me by Mr. Boo, requesting consideration and listing his qualifications can hardly be disallowed as an "application" just because it does employ not a standardized and, in this case, non-existent form.

A copy of Mr. Boo's letter should therefore have been provided to me in response to my FOIA request, along with any similar documents submitted by the other applicants.

I'm hoping that the Park District's law firm, Ancel Glink, which handles its FOIA requests, simply misinterpreted my choice of words. I've been playing phone tag with the designated attorney, but hope the matter can be easily resolved when we connect.

If not, it is my intention to refer the matter to the Public Access Counselor in the Illinois Attorney General's Office, an option the law provides.

[Perry Sweet]

I strongly support Jim Boo being appointed to the Park District Board. Jim would do a great job for the LaGrange Park District and the citizens of LaGrange.

[William Dobias]

If it is true, as rumored, that all but Jim Boo applied after the Mar. 1 deadline, it will be interesting to see how Tim Kelpsas avoids appointing him

[Chris Walsh]

Bill:

The law requires that the replacement take place by majority vote of the board (excluding the departing member). This means in the PDLG case that a minimum of three votes (of four) would be needed. Even if (contrary to fact) the PDLG were obligated to consider only a single individual who made his interest known by an arbitrary "deadline", the Board is under no obligation to actually vote on whether to install the person; and even if there were such an obligation, the motion would still need to pass.

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