The Park District of La Grange today made public documents submitted by five applicants seeking to fill a vacancy on its board of commissioners created by the resignation of Rob Metzger.
Park officials redacted home addresses, personal telephone numbers and email addresses from the documents.
An examination of the documents reveals that two of the candidates—James Fornaciari and Julie Workman—appear to have filed their applications after the deadline imposed by the Park District.
View PDF copies of all of applicants' documents by clicking on the links at the bottom of this report.
The applicants' biographical information was released only after La Grange Today Publisher Thom Rae filed two requests under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and threatened to refer the matter to the Illinois Attorney General.
Park officials did not directly respond to Rae's request to provide the date and time each application was received. However, that information can be discerned for three of the candidates—Fornaciari, Workman and Daniel Shoemaker—as each of their applications were transmitted via email and contain the date and time it was sent.
Shoemaker and Workman both emailed their applications on March 1, the last day to receive eligible filings.
Shoemaker's application was sent at 2:08 p.m., nearly three hours before the 5 p.m. deadline. But Workman's was not sent until 10:44 p.m., several hours after the deadline.
Fornaciari emailed his application on March 5 and acknowledged his late filing in his correspondence.
The two other applicants, Bradley Belcaster and James Boo, apparently submitted printed versions of their filing documents to the Park District on Feb. 24 and 26, respectively.
Park officials have made no announcement as to when interviews with the candidates will be conducted. Executive Director Dean Bissias last week said he was still trying to coordinate the schedules of park commissioners and candidates.
There also has been no mention of whether the interviews will be open to the public.
The Illinois Open Meetings Act (OMA) allows public bodies to conduct closed sessions for "[t]he selection of a person to fill a public office, as defined in this Act, including a vacancy in a public office, when the public body is given power to appoint under law or ordinance."
While the OMA allows closed sessions for this purpose, they are not required by the statute.
Notice of any meeting of a public body, including a closed session, must be given at least 48 hours before it is conducted.
The final vote to appoint a person to fill a vacancy on a public body must be conducted in public.
Click on name of each applicant below to view a PDF version of his or her documents.
Read these related stories:
- Withholding information submitted by applicants for public office is illegal, Illinois Attorney General rules
- Park District reveals names of five applicants for board vacancy, but withholds all other information
- Park District withholds identities of applicants for board vacancy pending approval of FOIA request
Thanks again Thom, for pursuing abusive actions by public officials. It is interesting that Dean Bissias and the Park Board were so considerate of the applicants- redacting the home addresses, personal phone numbers and e-mail addresses of the applicants from their materials.
When Bissias and the Park Board blatantly posted on their web site the names, home addresses and personal phone numbers of the Friends of the Parks a while ago, I personally e-mailed both Bissias and Tim Kelpsas, Board President, requesting that same courtesy for them and was ignored.
Posted by: William Dobias | March 17, 2010 at 07:35 AM
Oh to be a fly on the wall or mouse in the wall (if the rec center has vermin). After looking at the materials of the self-promoted candidates, it appears that by the filing deadline date there were only three candidates - Brad Belcaster who would not do because of his close business involvement with the Board, Jim Boo who the Park Board did not want and Daniel Shoemaker who, although having excellent credentials, would probably be a real wild card to Tim Kelpsas. So the calls went out and James Fornaciari who, by his letter, appears to be personally familiar with Rob Metzger, and Julie Workman who would be made to order for the Park Board interests in current controversies stepped forward. The result of all of this will be very interesting. Time for you to exhibit some real leadership, Tim Kelpsas.
Posted by: William Dobias | March 17, 2010 at 07:53 AM