Afraid filing a FOIA has negative consequences? Contact me. I'll file the FOIA. I'll keep our communication confidential. Librarians, especially sexually harassed librarians, this applies to you as well.
Know that American Library Association [ALA] trains librarians to destroy public documents in violation of record retention laws precisely to block the usefulness of FOIA laws in exposing public corruption. If the records are destroyed or never created in the first place, FOIA laws have reduced utility. ALA knows this. It even ordered librarians to destroy all notes taken during one of these trainings on destroying records:
Kevin DuJan, along with Megan Fox, sought public records under FOIA for years from a library in Orland Park, IL, that, following ALA advice and with ALA direct involvement, allowed and covered up child pornography viewing. It is ALA policy that facilitates child pornography viewing in public libraries nationwide, so ALA is keen to advise libraries how to silence whistleblowers so as to protect its own policy:
The library used one excuse after the next to deny or delay the records that belong to the public or to ignore the FOIA requests in the first place. For years. It then blamed massive legal fees on the whistleblowers and even sought and obtained a tax increase. Filings were made with the state's attorney general and law suits were filed, with the library losing nearly every case and the whistleblowers winning access to public records proving the child porn coverup, and even $55,000:
The below FOIA requests were written days ago by Kevin DuJan and sent to a public library in Illinois. I am presenting them as examples of FOIA requests on public libraries.
Sample: "In Orland Park, employees who complained about sexual harassment were targeted for termination and pressured to quit after they came to managers with concerns about the hostile work environment. Is that happening at your library too?" Notice first he asked for specific documents. FOIA allows for that. Then he asked a question that need not be answered under FOIA, but that gives context to his document request.
Put them both to good use:
Dear Arlington Heights Public Library FOIA Compliance Team,
MEDIA FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST
Re: Research Project #2017-03-28 ArlingtonHeightsStudy-01
This is a noncommercial FOIA Request from a member of the news media for electronic production of documents to this email address, to my attention, using the above referenced research project code. You have 5 business days under the FOIA statute to comply. Please do not redact any non-exempt information on the documents and please be sure to include all BCC lines in any emails produced. All documents should be produced as PDFs, with the exception of photographs (which should be JPEG), audio files (which should be MP3), and video (which should be MP4 or MOV video files). If the document files are too large to transmit in one single email, I authorize you to transmit them to me either using a free file sharing service such as DropBox or to send multiple emails (as many as required to send all of the documents asked of you).
I seek the following numbered categories of documents for my research pursuant to a news article I am writing that has interest and value to the public:
Copy of the following:
1. As detailed in the book SHUT UP!: The Bizarre War that One Public Library Waged Against the First Amendment, the Orland Park Public Library Board was caught violating the law by covering up child pornography and other sex crimes that were allowed by staff to occur in that library -- in addition to taxpayer funds being used to buy gold jewelry and pay for lavish meals and trips for board members. The Arlington Heights Public Library is being studied as a comparison to the Orland Park Public Library to see if your staff and board members behave the way that Orland Park's staff and board behaved. To that end, please produce the 2017 to date receipts and reimbursement documents for all staff and board travel and meals this year. This includes but is not limited to all the receipts for meals and/or food/beverage spending, any and all reimbursement forms completed authorizing such spending, mileage receipts, airline tickets, hotel bills, and any other paperwork supporting the spending of taxpayer funds for staff and/or board members to eat, drink, or travel in the year 2017. It also includes but is not limited to any food/beverage that is consumed by board members during board meetings. I want to see if you are abusing your positions and violating the Illinois Local Library Act the way that Orland Park's board members were caught doing.
2. Similar to #1 above, please produce the 2016 spending documents for staff and board member travel and food/beverage.
3. For the years 2016 and 2017, please produce all receipts and spending authorization for gift purchases using taxpayer funds. In Orland Park, corrupt staff and board members were caught shopping at the Noral Diamond Jewelers store buying gold jewelry and other gifts for themselves using public money. They were also caught making gluttonous purchases at the Orland Park Bakery for themselves amounting to many thousands of dollars, as the Library Director had an incurable sweet tooth. Has Arlington Heights Public Library been doing anything like this too? Gift cards and anything considered "a prize" should also be included in your FOIA production regarding gift purchases.
4. Please produce all receipts and spending authorization for any purchases, donations, or other funds going to either the American Library Association or the Illinois Library Association. With Orland Park Public Library, the book SHUT UP! documents the ALA and ILA repeatedly giving the Orland Park Public Library terrible advice and encouraging staff and board members to break the law and hide documents from the public while allowing child pornography and other sex crimes to continue at that library. How much influence does the ALA and ILA have in Arlington Heights? Please produce all ALA/ILA membership charges, purchases of tickets/passes to ALA or ILA events, etc. to establish your library's connections to these two organizations.
5. Please produce your legal bills/invoices for the years 2016 and 2017 to date. The book SHUT UP! documents how the law firm Klein Thorpe Jenkins gave the Orland Park Public Library terrible legal advice that got the library in hot water for violating both the FOIA statute and the Open Meetings Act. Does Klein Thorpe Jenkins provide your library with bad legal advice too? There seems to be a pattern where libraries that receive legal advice from KTJ are the ones most likely to be found violating the law and squandering taxpayer resources.
6. Please produce all of your internal incident reports for the years 2016 and 2017. As the book SHUT UP! documents, the Orland Park Public Library was plagued with sex crimes for many years, with staff allowing men to masturbate openly in the library, access child pornography without police being called, and sexually harass and stalk women. The ALA and ILA appear to have advised the OPPL to cover-up these incidents and look the other way when they happened. Has your library been doing that too?
7. Please produce the last 10 write-ups given to your employees. A write-up for the purposes of this FOIA request is any document given to an employee by a manager documenting the manager's opinion that the employee violated library policy and was being disciplined for some reason. In Orland Park, bad managers were able to be identified by studying the write-ups they issued and looking at which employees were being unfairly harassed by management. In Orland Park, employees who complained about sexual harassment were targeted for termination and pressured to quit after they came to managers with concerns about the hostile work environment. Is that happening at your library too?
I look forward to working with you on this study of the Arlington Heights Public Library to see how your library compares to Orland Park and if you are doing any of the terrible things that staff and board members were caught doing in Orland Park. I am most interested in understanding your spending patterns, your treatment of your employees, and how you handle sexual incidents and crimes that occur in your library (and if you cover these up or try to hide the truth the way that Orland Park did). Please let me know if you need any clarity for FOIA production. I invite you to read our findings on Orland Park in the book SHUT UP!: The Bizarre War that One Public Library Waged on the First Amendment. If you are doing anything bad in Arlington Heights, that information will be immediately reported to the public as it was with the Orland Park Public Library.
Thank you!
Kevin DuJan
Story Time Digital Media
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MEDIA CREDENTIAL
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Story Time Digital Media is a digital news service in electronic format presenting video content and in-depth articles to the public (free of charge) as well as newsletters distributed to the public on a regular rolling basis. Our focus is on topics pertaining to the welfare and safety of children and being a watchdog exposing government abuse, graft, and corruption in the state of Illinois and nationally. We are experts on government transparency laws, the Freedom of Information Act, the Open Meetings Act, the Illinois Local Library Act, and the First Amendment Right to Petition our government for change and redress of grievances. Read our new book SHUT UP! The Bizarre War that One Public Library Waged Against the First Amendment, about the pattern of abuse and intimidation that the Orland Park Public Library engaged in to silence and censor its critics and attempt to chill the Free Speech and other protected activity of investigative reporters who uncovered unreported crimes happening in what had become a dangerous place for children. SHUT UP! is available now on Amazon.com and has been targeted for suppression, censoring, and banning by members of the American Library Association who do not want people to know the truth about the ALA or its Office for Intellectual Freedom.
Subscribe to our video channel to view news reels, cartoons, and other motion picture news clips that we produce to educate the public on the affairs of local government and elected officials' mistreatment of the public. "Like" us on Facebook or more information on who we are and the stories we cover and click below for our social media presence:
NOTE: Story Time Digital Media is recognized in Illinois as both media and non-profit under the definitions in Section 2 (c-10) ("Commercial purpose"), Section 2 (f) ("News media"), Section 2 (g) ("Recurrent requester"), and Section 2 (h) ("Voluminous request") of the Freedom of Information Act, for the purposes of being exempt to the provisions of Section 3.1 (Requests for commercial purposes), Section 3.2 (Recurrent requesters), Section 3.6 (Voluminous requests), and Section 6 (Authority to charge fees). All documents received by Story Time Digital Media are intended for research involved in articles, newsletters, news reels, essays, and books written for public awareness, education, and instruction.
Dear Arlington Heights Public Library FOIA compliance team,
MEDIA FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST
Re: Research Project #2017-03-31 ArlingtonHeightsStudy-02
This is a noncommercial FOIA Request from a member of the news media for electronic production of documents to this email address, to my attention, using the above referenced research project code. You have 5 business days under the FOIA statute to comply. Please do not redact any non-exempt information on the documents and please be sure to include all BCC lines in any emails produced. All documents should be produced as PDFs, with the exception of photographs (which should be JPEG), audio files (which should be MP3), and video (which should be MP4 or MOV video files). If the document files are too large to transmit in one single email, I authorize you to transmit them to me either using a free file sharing service such as DropBox or to send multiple emails (as many as required to send all of the documents asked of you).
I seek the following numbered categories of documents for my research pursuant to a news article I am writing that has interest and value to the public:
Copy of the following:
1. Please produce all records for a holiday/Christmas/end-of-year party for your staff and/or board members (if you held such an event) for the years 2014 through 2016 inclusive. I assume you held such an event as many public libraries seem to love wasting taxpayer money on parties for yourselves (despite such parties offering no public benefit). In the book SHUT UP!: The Bizarre War that One Public Library Waged Against the First Amendment, it's documented that the Orland Park Public Library wasted thousands of dollars through the years throwing lavish parties for staff and board members, including buying expensive items at a local jewelry store to give each other as gifts or "awards" at these parties. I want to see if the Arlington Heights Public Library similarly wastes the public's money on extravagant holiday/Christmas/end-of-the-
2. Please produce all records of payment and invoices for performers and/or presenters who performed/presented at the library in the years 2016 and 2017 inclusive. In SHUT UP!, it's documented that the Orland Park Public Library wasted thousands of dollars through the years hiring a self-proclaimed "paranormalist" to come to the library and talk about ghosts that he believes haunt various places, such as libraries. (Ghosts are not real.) The OPPL also paid to have imams come to the library to promote Islam and encourage conversion of Orland Park residents to Islam while simultaneously banning Christmas music at the library in December. (Islam, unfortunately, is real.) I want to see if the Arlington Heights Public Library is doing any crazy/wasteful things such as this too. Are you?
3. Please produce any records of enrollment, attendance, and/or registration for the ALA's summer 2017 conference for any staff and/or board members who intend to attend this event, which I feel is mostly propaganda aimed at harming local communities by teaching library staff to follow radical Leftist ALA diktat instead of responding to the actual wants and needs of the community.
Thank you!
Kevin DuJan
Story Time Digital Media
******************************
MEDIA CREDENTIAL
******************************
Story Time Digital Media is a digital news service in electronic format presenting video content and in-depth articles to the public (free of charge) as well as newsletters distributed to the public on a regular rolling basis. Our focus is on topics pertaining to the welfare and safety of children and being a watchdog exposing government abuse, graft, and corruption in the state of Illinois and nationally. We are experts on government transparency laws, the Freedom of Information Act, the Open Meetings Act, the Illinois Local Library Act, and the First Amendment Right to Petition our government for change and redress of grievances. Read our new book SHUT UP! The Bizarre War that One Public Library Waged Against the First Amendment, about the pattern of abuse and intimidation that the Orland Park Public Library engaged in to silence and censor its critics and attempt to chill the Free Speech and other protected activity of investigative reporters who uncovered unreported crimes happening in what had become a dangerous place for children. SHUT UP! is available now on Amazon.com and has been targeted for suppression, censoring, and banning by members of the American Library Association who do not want people to know the truth about the ALA or its Officer for Intellectual Freedom.
Subscribe to our video channel to view news reels, cartoons, and other motion picture news clips that we produce to educate the public on the affairs of local government and elected officials' mistreatment of the public. "Like" us on Facebook or more information on who we are and the stories we cover and click below for our social media presence:
NOTE: Story Time Digital Media is recognized in Illinois as both media and non-profit under the definitions in Section 2 (c-10) ("Commercial purpose"), Section 2 (f) ("News media"), Section 2 (g) ("Recurrent requester"), and Section 2 (h) ("Voluminous request") of the Freedom of Information Act, for the purposes of being exempt to the provisions of Section 3.1 (Requests for commercial purposes), Section 3.2 (Recurrent requesters), Section 3.6 (Voluminous requests), and Section 6 (Authority to charge fees). All documents received by Story Time Digital Media are intended for research involved in articles, newsletters, news reels, essays, and books written for public awareness, education, and instruction.
NOTE ADDED 27 DECEMBER 2018:
Updated a link.
See also:
- "FOIA Request of Houston Public Library by SafeLibraries - 01," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 27 December 2018.
URL of this page:
safelibraries.blogspot.com/2017/04/foia-library.html
On Twitter:
@ahml @ALALibrary @ECWDogs @HillBuzz @MeganFoxWriter @NFOIC @OrlandPkLibrary
Follow @SafeLibraries
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