A Rudyard Kipling approach to (FOIA) requests – Part Two

Now that you have had a chance to review the “FOIA” legislation, let’s see if we can make the law more understandable and user friendly. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office has been very helpful in this regard. Her office has provided us two web pages: "General Public Training" and “Frequently Asked Questions By the Public”. The training takes a few minutes and the FAQ provides good additional information.

A few points to keep in mind on your way to becoming a FOIA maven.

Most School Districts receive one or two FOIA requests in any given month. I have authored over 1,050 FOIA requests; the majority of them penned between 2005 and 2007. Do I know everything about FOIA’s? No. But I have had some success with them.

A couple of the things I learned during those years was that: all is not always as it seems, and the incident that prompts your question, is often times, a symptom of a much larger problem.

So, follow me and get ready to write your first FOIA but don’t forget to keep looking at the big picture.

Assuming you’ve done your homework and somewhat understand FOIA concepts, we’ll move on to Butterly’s five steps for FOIA requests.

Butterly's five steps for FOIA requests.

1. Pick your target 2. Determine who to send the FOIA to 3. Perfect your question 4. Send via e-mail 5. Await your answer.

To help illustrate these five steps, I’ve chosen to answer the e-mailed questions published in A Rudyard Kipling approach to (FOIA) requests – Part One.  Now let’s begin.

Background

East Maine School District #63 (EMSD#63) recently cried “poor” again, and held a public meeting in January 2010 to discuss the additional sale of millions of dollars in Bonds to help cover expenses.  As you might recall, EMSD#63 passed a major tax increase referendum only a few years earlier.

EMSD#63’s Agenda/Minutes supporting this statement:

“Public Hearing on intent of the District to Sell Bonds and Regular Business Meeting / Jan 6 '10

1.03 Public Hearing Concerning the intent of the District to sell bonds in the amount of $3,500,000 for the purpose of paying claims against the District and in the amount of $5,000,000 for the purpose of increasing the working cash fund for the District”

Opinion & Musings

In light of this, or maybe even in spite of this, EMSD#63’s School Board, knowingly and without shame, continues to spend $900+ taxpayer dollars per day on, in my opinion, the questionable services currently being provided by former Superintendent Dr. Kathleen Williams.

Pick your target.

In this case, the target organization is East Maine School District #63 School Board.

Determine who to send the FOIA to.

One can not just send in a FOIA request that starts with the words: “to whom it may concern.” The law requires the public body you have chosen to FOIA, to assign a specific person to manage FOIA requests. We must (should) e-mail the district, in this case EMSD#63, to determine who that person is.  I have already done so.  The resulting e-mail series illustrate this process. 

E-Mail EMSD#63 Asking for FOIA Officer

In order to read the full report, click on Fullscreen view. Move your mouse over, and to the sides of the document. A cursor hand will appear. Click your mouse and you will be able to page through the report.

Perfect your question.

In A Rudyard Kipling approach to (FOIA) requests – Part One, I showed you the text of an e-mail that asked five questions. I am now going to place those questions in their proper order:

E-Mailer’s Questions In Order

Does Dr. Williams have a contract? Is she still consulting District 63? What is she doing? How many days has she worked? How much money have we paid for her services?

Let's look at each question and see if any or all of them can be perfected.  At the same time, let’s look at the information already available to the general public.

What do we know?

All we know for sure that the Journal-Topics on August 19, 2009, believed Dr. Williams was under a consulting contract or agreement.

Journal-Topics - District 63 Brings Back Williams---At $900 A Day

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Assuming the Journal-Topics information is correct, we will first need to confirm the information presented in the article.  Remember your seven good friends; who, what , when, where, how, why and how much? It’s time call them for duty. We will use them to guide us and to help us define as many of the remaining questions as we can.

Time to lay out your questions and thoughts. 

This structured approach has worked well for me in the past.

Who: EMSD#63 School Board and Kathleen Williams, Retired Superintendant of Schools, East Maine School District #63.

What: Has Dr. Williams performed consulting services on behalf of herself or others at EMSD#63? 

Subordinate Question(s)

What does the scope of work look like?  What does the contract say?  Who does Dr. Williams report to?  What do the progress reports say?  When will the contract end?  How much money can we expect to spend under this agreement/contract?

When: Were these services performed between July 1, 2009 and the date of this posting? 

Subordinate Question(s)

What dates were these services performed?

Where: East Maine School District #63.

How: Why was the contract/(agreement) needed? 

Subordinate Question(s)

Who was responsible for initiating the agreement?  Who was responsible for writing the agreement?  Who was responsible for voting for the agreement?

Note:The Journal-Topics said: “The Dist. 63 school board approved hiring Williams in June before her retirement.” 

A review of the June, 2009 Board Minutes does not show such an agreement.  Further, multiple viewings of the full June 3, 2009 EMSD#63 School Board Meeting video taken by Mr. Eric Poder of the Morton Grove Voice, fails to show any direct reference to the hiring of Dr. Williams.

A copy of those minutes are presented below for your review.  A copy of the two part video can be obtained by contacting Mr. Poder at the Morton Grove Voice.

EMSD#63 School Board Meeting Minutes - June 3, 2009

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Also, Dr. Clay reportedly also told the Journal-Topics: “Williams has no contract but will serve on an ‘as needed’ basis to assist district administrators.”

As one who is somewhat familiar with the goings on at EMSD#63, I can only ask: This Board?  This District?  No contract?

Why: Why is Dr. Williams' expertise required? 

Opinion & Musings

The School Board had already hired Dr. Clay; “an intelligent, articulate, highly qualified and experienced Assistant Superintendant and former Principal,” to perform the duties of Superintendant. Did the Board not think Dr. Clay capable of performing his duties when they hired him? Were there no other currently employed EMSD#63 administrators available, who could lead, manage and advise the Board “on a large construction project involving four schools?” Were there no other currently employed EMSD#63 administrators available who could lead, manage and advise the Board regarding “H1N1 flu contingencies?”  Did Dr. Williams fail to prepare her administrators while Superintendent, such that they would need mentoring by her or someone else when she left?

Journal-Topics went on to say: “Clay said Williams started the project last year and is being brought in to see it through to completion.”

Opinion & Musings

With all due respect to Dr. Williams, I didn’t see anything on her résumé that displays specific, or even general, construction management expertise.  Besides, Dan Barrie, Director of Operations & Maintenance is already employed by the district to perform that task.  The EMSD#63 website states: “The Building & Grounds Department is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of District 63 facilities.”  Also, in my opinion, Dr. Williams, her prior administration and School Board did not have a stellar reputation when it came to building maintenance.  One only need recall the District/MTSEP 1131 Dee Road property fiasco.  Further, as one can easily see, Dr. Williams résumé showed no prior experience in epidemiology or other related medical or scientific fields, that  would have made her judgments, input or management skills, more valuable than any currently employed EMSD#63 Administrator.  Quite frankly, based on experience, skills, administrative position and the close availability of the District’s school nurse, I would have expected Mrs. Lynn Glickman, Executive Director of Personnel and Pupil Services, to be the lead person on that project.

I have provided a copy of Dr. Kathleen Williams résumé below.

Dr. Kathleen Willimans Résumé

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Opinion & Musings

Dr. Williams departure had been known for over a year. The construction project was initiated by Dr. Williams, based on her own résumé.  The H1N1 flu virus issues were also known prior to her departure. Dr. Williams was responsible to prepare the way for her staff and replacement, Dr. Clay.  This, I believe, she did not adequately do.  Had she had done so, her consulting, advising and mentoring services would not have been needed. Ergo, no $900 per day consulting gig. The responsibility for this “situation” clearly rests with the School Board and with it’s President. All this begs the questions: Did the School Board believe Dr. Clay incapable of performing all of the duties of Superintendant?  Was the School Board unwilling to risk failure of these important projects under former Superintendant Dr. Williams replacement?  Who’s idea was it to forgo other possibly more experienced candidates for Dr. Clay?

How Much: The Journal-Topics stated: “The district is paying Williams $900 per day.” 

Subordinate Question(s)

Is that true?  How many “as needed” days has Dr. Williams worked in her capacity as consultant, advisor and mentor?  Also, what additional money has the District spent in support of this agreement?  Finally, when does the School Board expect this agreement to terminate?

Research! Research! More Research!

Part of the research is now complete.  We’ve already found out who to send the FOIA request to.  We’ve read the Board Minutes associated with Dr. Clays reported claims.   We’ve reviewed Dr. Williams résumé to see if she had expertise in construction management, epidemiology or science.  Now it’s time to review the remaining publically available data before composing the FOIA request.

Let’s start with EMSD#63’s Monthly Accounts Payable Reports. These reports, in PDF format, can be found as an attachment at the bottom of each Board Agenda.  

After reviewing all of the Board Agendas posted between May, 2009 and April, 2010, I could not find any mention of a Board vote on an agreement with Dr. Williams. 

A report, based on that search follows.

Accounts Payable Report - May 2009 - April 2010

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After reviewing the report, we can see that Dr. Williams was paid three times over non-consecutive months for ancillary items associated with consulting services.  The check information can be found on pages 12, 17 and 20.  Further, no other checks for consulting services were paid to Dr. Kathleen Williams, in her name!

The fact that there was check information printed on the Accounts Payable Report, proves that Dr. Williams was, and/or is consulting. 

Subordinate Question(s)

How is she currently being paid? Is it possible that Dr. Williams intends to perform all her work, invoice the district at the end of the project, and collect her money. Is it possible that Dr. Williams is not operating under her own name?  Could she be operating as a partnership, corporation, LLC, etc.   Could Dr. Williams be working for another organization that already had or currently has, a contract with the District? Could EMSD#63  be purchasing a tax deferred annuity or some other tax deferred investment instrument on her behalf, that would not necessarily show up under her name at this time?

As you can see, there are lots of questions to be answered. 

Strategy.

Should we submit the initial FOIA requests one-question-at-a-time,  or should we cast a larger net?

In this case, I’m choosing to throw the net.  I can then submit additional single FOIA requests based on initial request responses, or as newly developed questions dictate.

Time to write the FOIA.

FOIA - 05_5_2010 - _Consulting Agreement and Support Docum…

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Send via e-mail.

FOIA Date: Tuesday, May 05, 2010                                        Number: 100505-001

Now, we must await our answer!

See, it wasn’t so hard.  Was it?   When EMSD#63’s answers come back, and when I’ve had time to review the response, I’ll write “Part –Three.”

It’s now your turn to write a FOIA request!