Urbana Attorney James Simon Repeatedly Lies About Illinois Attorney General Findings in Regards to FOIA

CU-Underground is in receipt of a string of emails which include communications from Urbana City Attorney James Simon and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. The communications reveal City staff violating public records laws, and Simon repeatedly lying about the legal findings of the Public Access Counselor at the Attorney General’s Office.

The citizen, who prefers not to be identified, had attempted multiple times to request records from the Amy Koker, an administrative assistant at the City of Urbana who had just responded to a previous FOIA request. Koker is also wife to Urbana Police Officer James Cory Koker, about whom the citizen had recently filed a police complaint (retaliation is a likely reason for Amy Koker’s misconduct). Amy Koker repeatedly ignored the records request, which is a violation of Illinois State law. When the issue was appealed to the Public Access Counselor of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, attorney Leah Bartelt intervened.

Having been caught violating the Freedom of Information Act, Amy Koker immediately complied, but did not supply all of the records, according to the appellant. Attorney Leah Bartlet administratively closed the case, since the City had finally complied, though weeks later than allowed for by the FOIA law.

The violation in this instance is unquestionable, but Urbana City Attorney James Simon has repeatedly argued that the Illinois Attorney General ruled that the City fully complied with FOIA. There is absolutely no evidence for this, and no such ruling exists, and everything indicates that the City in fact violated the FOIA law. Attorney Leah Bartelt of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office stated herself that “the City’s response was untimely under section 3(d) because the City did not respond in 5 business days”. It seems that Simon is content lying through his teeth, but this wouldn’t be the first time. Unfortunately, for Urbana residents, this is just more of the lies and deception that we hear about on a daily basis at CU-Underground.