Just two days after being publicly criticized by residents at an Urbana City Council meeting on May 18th, 2020, City Clerk Charlie Smyth informed the Mayor of his intent to resign. Mayor Diane Marlin and Smyth did not inform the public of this decision until May 30th.
Charlie Smyth spent 16 years on the Urbana City Council from 2001 to 2017. Smyth endeavored to climb the political ladder, but Champaign County voters decided he was unfit to be County Clerk during his 2012 run for that position. Near the end of 2016, Alderman Smyth pushed to have the salary of Urbana City Clerk increased. Then, just months later, Smyth seized the opportunity to steal the Urbana City Clerk chair uncontested.
Unfortunately for Urbana citizens, Smyth quickly established a posture of denial and impropriety in response to public records requests. Reports from citizens indicate constant records denials, with Smyth ignoring virtually all pleas for explanation. Instead of receiving the records they’ve requested, many residents who make Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests are given a denial letter from one of Smyth’s attorneys in the City legal department.
Complaints directed toward the City of Urbana skyrocketed after Smyth acquired the Clerk’s seat and became Urbana’s “Lead FOIA Officer”. Data from the Illinois Attorney General’s Office shows that Urbana FOIA appeals are being sent 5-6 times more frequently now than before Smyth took office. The City of Urbana and the Urbana Police Department became the subject of a FOIA lawsuit filed in early March.
CU-Underground has also received numerous complaints from residents concerning transparency in Urbana, and dozens of clear FOIA violations have been documented. Violations range from Smyth simply ignoring FOIA requests, to clear intent to hide documents for the purposes of concealing crimes committed by City staff and elected officials.
It is notable that much of the effort to barricade the public from access to records was in regards to police misconduct. This became a contemptuous issue after the violent arrest of Urbana resident Aleyah Lewis arrest caused the residents of Urbana to push harder for transparency from their government. Smyth suddenly found himself in the incredibly unpopular (and now very publicly visible) position of having shielded the Urbana Police Department from public oversight for so many years.
Ducking out of taking responsibility is exactly the move that residents have come to expect, and that is exactly the path Smyth chose by resigning. Smyth, refusing to acknowledge the accumulation of failures during his time in office, said he was resigning because of occasional stomach pain.
Smyth leaves behind a mess of unresolved misconduct allegations which will now need to be painfully sorted through by other City staff. Dozens of ignored or delayed public records requests now become someone else’s problem. Mayor Marlin, whom we now known enlisted Smyth to cover up her own misconduct, has given no indication that any of this brings her concern, and no indication that the next FOIA Officer will do any better.