Showing posts with label OpenMeetingsAct. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OpenMeetingsAct. Show all posts

Saturday, March 31, 2018

Crooked Library Board Forces Out Library Director

Sad News for Community as Bellwood Public Library’s Director Jacqueline Spratt Forced Out by Board Power Plays

by Kevin DuJan
Illinois Leaks "Edgar County Watchdogs"
29 March 2018


BELLWOOD, ILLINOIS —

In a shocking and sad development, Bellwood Public Library Director Jacqueline Spratt announced her resignation (effective April 6th).

Spratt has been a tenacious advocate for fiscal responsibility and government accountability during her 4-year tenure as Bellwood’s director. (She has worked at the Bellwood Public Library for a total of 25 years.) She is a rare figure in Chicagoland, being a public employee who routinely said “NO!” to public officials who wanted to squander the public’s money and abuse their elected positions. Spratt is a woman of great integrity who stood up to bullying by board members the likes of which it is rare to see, even in Chicago. Being only human, it appears she reached the point where she just couldn’t take any more grief or abuse from the Bellwood Public Library Board of Trustees…and so she is calling it quits. While it’s hard to blame her, it’s also heartbreaking to see someone who loves her community and her library forced out of a job she clearly loves.

This is the latest in an ongoing struggle in Bellwood for a number of years, as we reported on here in the past. Bellwood Public Library has been plagued by board members who allegedly steal from the public, demand exorbitant reimbursements (including checks written in advance) for conference trips that some didn’t even bother to attend, (with other board members staying longer than a conference required, thus turning that trip into a “free” vacation the public had to pay for). Board members in Bellwood demanded to be fed dinner during board meetings and plotted to award lucrative renovation contracts and other highly-paid positions to friends or cronies. All the while, a shadowy and mysterious local political figure seemed to be pulling strings and influencing board members, giving the community the impression that the machinations ongoing at the library were similar to other schemes that appeared to be unfolding within Bellwood’s school district. It’s unfortunate that media outlets with the resources to fund investigative reporting and forensic accounting don’t make Bellwood a priority because there appear to be more layers upon layers (upon layers) of scandal in Bellwood than in the movie Chinatown.

So much happens there that it’s hard to follow all of the twists and turns. In the last election, it appeared that things would start to improve for Bellwood’s library when several n’er-do-well board members lost their positions. But even with those bad apples removed, the Board as a whole seemed to continue harassing Spratt in what appears to be a power play to force her to back off of her reform agenda. Spratt triumphed several times when various Board members invented false accusations against her or trumped up ridiculous excuses to fire her; some of these stunts triggered legal actions that resulted in judges protecting Spratt and her position. In recent remarks to the press, Spratt appears exhausted and at wit’s end.

“I’ve been fighting with the board almost since I’ve been the director and I just don’t want to fight anymore…I think that some people have hidden agendas that I’m not willing to go with,” Spratt told the Village Free Press on March 28th.


Bellwood’s library board has a long reputation for violating the Open Meetings Act by inappropriately holding closed meetings, calling improper special meetings as power plays on days when certain board members are not able to attend a meeting or voting on matters without a proper quorum. Last summer, the Board appears to have tried a new tactic to remove Spratt as an obstacle to their lawbreaking by filing a restraining order against her…but a judge quashed that gambit. This followed the Board attempting to remove Spratt as the director without any proper grounds for doing so…and the Board not being able to list a single thing she did wrong as director. The Board appeared intent on getting rid of Spratt because she was a consistent voice of reason that got in the way of whatever crazy or illegal thing the Board wanted to do.

This being Illinois, it should come as no surprise that this story ends with the good person feeling forced to leave her job while the bad public officials succeed in getting rid of her. Without Jacqueline Spratt in place to push back against the lawbreaking and looting of the Library’s coffers, it’s sad to think about the Bellwood community having no one to say “NO!” to this reckless and out-of-control board. The Bellwood Public Library is a true gem in an area often neglected in Chicagoland. It needs people like Spratt to thrive (let alone survive).

.
Our work is funded entirely thru donations and we
ask that you consider donating at the below link.
Donate to Illinois Leaks
"Edgar County Watchdogs"









Source: "Sad News for Community as Bellwood Public Library’s Director Jacqueline Spratt Forced Out by Board Power Plays," by Kevin DuJan, Illinois Leaks "Edgar County Watchdogs," 29 March 2018.




I hereby recommend the American Library Association award former Bellwood Public Library Director Jacqueline Spratt with its "Paul Howard Award for Courage" or its "Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced With Adversity":

http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/lemony-snicket


—
URL of this page: 
safelibraries.blogspot.com/2018/03/crooked-library-board.html

On Twitter: 
@ALALibrary @BellwoodPubLib @ECWDogs

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Sunshine Week: Public Libraries and Sunshine Laws

It's Sunshine Week, the "annual nationwide celebration of access to public information and what it means for you and your community."

Sunshine laws involve the public's right to public meetings or to copies of public documents made by public entities such as public libraries.

Public libraries go out of their way to ensure open access to nearly anything (facilitating even child pornography despite the law, but I digress) so it should be a no-brainer that libraries will be the most compliant with sunshine laws.

Not so fast.  Right during Sunshine Week, public libraries have come to the fore in the different ways they respond to sunshine laws and the different ways legal process addresses the issues.  Here are publications that arose during or around Sunshine Week that illustrate public libraries may need remedial education on sunshine laws and the public's right to know:
As can be seen, public libraries need remedial education on sunshine laws and the public's right to know.

The American Library Association's "United for Libraries, Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations" provides guidance to library boards on how to handle public meetings:
Nowhere in that guidance is any reference to any sunshine law.  The "Sample Meeting Agenda" doesn't even include a sample of important open meeting inclusions such as listing with sufficient detail the reasons for an executive session.

Let's hope someone at ALA will have read this and that it prompts an improvement in the information ALA provides to libraries nationwide.  The public's right to know is just as important in public libraries as it is in other public institutions.  Libraries, of all places, should know that.

Perhaps the ALA's poor guidance to libraries is the cause of massive sunshine law failures that caused a library in Orland Park, IL, to spend over a quarter million dollars and even raise taxes to defend against multiple open meeting and public record request violations that it lost again and again for years.  All to cover up the crime of child pornography viewing on unfiltered Internet computers.  It was ultimately exposed.  Had the library complied with the law the first time, that huge public waste of time and resources and even the tax increase would never have happened.  The library and ALA even stooped to homophobia to attempt to hide the child pornography and scare off the whistleblowers, one of whom was gay.  ALA has not even incorporated this debacle into its guidance for libraries, except for how steps could be taken to block future whistleblowers.

Buy Shut Up! on Amazon
This multiyear effort to hide records and meetings from the public resulted in the publication of a book that serves as an educational yet humorous guide for how to prepare for and handle the many excuses public bodies will use to thwart the public's right to know.  Yes, shockingly the book deals with public libraries, supposedly the most open of all public buildings, but it applies to any public institution.  If you are a Sunshine Week aficionado, then this is your Bible to buy:
Lastly, know that I am involved in a lawsuit against a library that, in my opinion, violated the open meeting law to ensure children retained access to Internet pornography in the children's section of the library, even after children had been viewing such material there.  At the end of this multi-year civil rights suit, I'll FOIA the records of all the money spent to ensure the public stayed unaware of a policy approved in possible violation of the law.

So stay tuned!
—
URL of this page: 
safelibraries.blogspot.com/2017/03/sunshine-week.html

On Twitter:
@ALA_United @RCFP @SunshineWeek

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Courtesy, Professionalism, Respect

Courtesy, professionalism, respect.  It's the motto of the New York Police Department.  It is good for public servants to observe those values.

Sometimes public servants have neither courtesy, professionalism, nor respect.  When such a public servant is a member of a public library board of trustees, it can be all the more shocking.

Interestingly, while a library board member exhibited none of those values to me, his library director exhibited all of them, and in such a case the contrast is particularly striking.

So I wrote a letter to the library director asking him to see if he could guide the library's board into being more professional.  I did not do this to be obnoxious in any way.  Rather, I am trying to find any means short of continuing litigation to get the library board to comply with the law, something it has not done for almost a year, and to do so as quickly as possible to minimize the financial pain to the community.

In that light, I bring to you my attempt to stop a library board from defying the law for almost a year, including continual new violations of the law, because so far there have been absolutely no consequences for breaking the law.  One of the laws involved is a civil rights law; these are not frivolous concerns.  And this is a library that broke the law so as to ensure children retain access to the unfiltered Internet in the children's section of the library, even while knowing children have accessed hardcore pornography.  I'm not sure my attempt will work, but at least I am making an effort to gently advise the board that if it continues to defy the law, consequences will continue to mount and perhaps grow so large that the municipality itself will face liability for failure to stop the lawlessness.


Dear Westfield Memorial Library Director Philip Israel,

I attended the Westfield Memorial Library Board of Trustees [the board] meeting yesterday on 25 February 2016.  At that meeting there were numerous possible violations of the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act [OPMA].  I am currently suing the board and its 2015 members individually for what I believe to be other violations of OPMA.  So now it is possible the board and its individual members are serial violators of OPMA.  It is possible a Court might consider ongoing violations as an aggravating factor when determining what remedies to apply.

Further, as the board has many new members, and as OPMA violations appear to me to be continuing unabated despite the present litigation, it is possible I may decide to amend the existing litigation to advise the Court of the possible ongoing violations and possible new defendants, namely, the new members of the board.

However, the real interest here is that the board complies with the law, not that I add new counts to an existing lawsuit with each new violation and each new board member.  The board’s complying with the law is in the interest of everyone, me, the board, the municipality, the Court, everyone.  So at this moment I’ll not add new counts and new defendants nor file any new cause of action.  But in exchange, the board needs to make an effort to comply with the law.

Here are violations I saw tonight.  First, the agenda did not list the executive session.  By law, the agenda must be provided “to the extent known,” and certainly the board knew it was going to have an executive session this evening, just like it knew it would discuss everything else on the agenda.  See NJS 10:4-8(d). Second, the public announcement of the executive session listed two reasons for the meeting, namely, personnel matters and litigation.  That violates the law.  For example, it may not just say litigation.  It must specify what litigation is being discussed.  See: http://ogtf.lpcnj.org/2012/2012213OK/rutgersMc.pdf

So the agenda listed “PUBLIC PARTICIPATION” then “ADJOURNMENT.”  I spoke at the public participation portion of the meeting, for example, warning a new library trustee that simply because a person challenged books does not automatically equate to censorship, as she had reflexively labelled it, portending a library trustee beholden to the American Library Association instead of acting in the public trust.  I also suggested that the dates and times of board meetings should be on the library’s electronic/online calendar as they used to be and on the web page dedicated to the board, not just hung on a sign in the library.  People look online for things these days.  Both suggestions seemed to be welcomed.  I sat down and everything appeared okay.

After I spoke, instead of adjourning per the agenda, the unlisted executive session was announced.  As I was leaving due to the closing of the meeting to the public, because I was aware the library likely should have listed the executive session on the agenda, I so stated that, to which one of the board members and a defendant in my existing lawsuit said to me, “public participation is closed,” meaning shut up and go away.  This is an aggravating factor to me of this latest OPMA violation and of previous ones as it evidences an atmosphere completely at odds with OPMA and no remorse for past violations of civil rights.  The board just violated OPMA again, I said the executive session likely should have been on the agenda in accordance with OPMA, and I was told to shut up, don’t tell us to follow the law.  That’s how I understood it.  I responded that it was unfriendly to say that as I was just advising them in respect of the law.  Then I left.  I was forced to make that comment after public participation had closed because the possible illegalities involving the agenda and the lack of specificity had occurred only after public participation had closed.  Was I to remain silent on yet more violations of civil rights under OPMA simply so I would not offend a bully board member?  Does OPMA require silence from the public when they witness lawlessness and it is not during the public participation portion of the meeting?  What goes on in the minds of board members who clearly show disdain for public participation and the law even in the face of litigation over that very law?

So here are issues for the board to address, and they should be addressed in public in compliance with OPMA. 1) The board needs to reverse its string of OPMA violations and begin to comply with the law.  Any negative consequences of OPMA litigation is the board’s fault for repeatedly failing to follow the law, not my fault for seeking to have the law enforced. If I do not see immediate improvement, I may consider amending my complaint to ask the Court to force compliance and include the new board members who are now possibly responsible for new OPMA violations, or I may bring a new action.  2) The board needs to be respectful of the public’s right to speak and not make snide remarks intended to tell someone to shut up and go away and don’t tell us to follow the law. Common courtesy should be enough to make that call.  But if that is too difficult for the various bullies on the board, at least consider that such actions might be considered as aggravating factors by any Court reviewing various possible and serial OPMA violations.  3) The board needs to correct past violations of the law, including those in my lawsuit: http://tinyurl.com/LibraryOPMA

I am going to continue attending board meetings at that library.  I am going to continue to expect compliance with the law and speak up at any time if I see violations of the law.  I am going to continue to write about noncompliance with the law.  Eventually the board will follow the law.  It would be best for everyone that it did so immediately on its own volition instead of having to be forced into it by application of the various remedies afforded in OPMA.  To the extent the board remains recalcitrant and drives up costs like legal fees that taxpayers ultimately pay, that will be the board’s doing, not mine.  I know American Library Association strategy is to fight tooth and nail to keep the public in the dark about how libraries break the law, even to the point of advising libraries to destroy evidence in violation of the law, and I know the board is already beholden to the American Library Association.  I know the American Library Association holds training sessions to teach librarians to use ad hominem argument to distract the public from a library’s own malfeasance.  If the board goes down the path of using lawyers to pound the public into submission while maintaining the illegality, that will be the board’s doing, not mine.  It would be best for the board to simply follow New Jersey’s law instead of Chicago’s American Library Association.  It’s going to end up doing that eventually anyway, so the sooner the better for everyone.

You may have noticed when the issue came up of the removal of the dozen or so drug and alcohol books from the youth section in respect of a mom’s challenge, I suggested applying the library’s book selection policy then advising the mom such books are within that policy.  So I am not there to complain about everything the board does and support every complainant.  Rather, the board in my view is now on a nearly year-long string of defying OPMA, and I have every right to seek enforcement of civil rights in such a case, in fact I have a First Amendment right to do so.

I thought you should know this and please forward to the board.

And while I am at it, I’m very impressed with your own professionalism as library director.  You are consistently excellent, even as board members make flip or rash statements about censorship or tell the public to shut up and go away, both exemplified by the American Library Association. Please try to help the board to come into compliance with the law, especially OPMA, and to act professionally as you do.  I’m not sure what it hopes to gain by its continuing defiance of the law that is about to span an entire year.

CC to Westfield Mayor and Town Council as two of the Council are involved in this matter and it might be time for the municipality to finally stop the board from acting outside the law, which the municipality was every right and duty to do, before potential liability grows to subsume the municipality as well.

CC to media and good government groups.

Dan



URL of this page: safelibraries.blogspot.com/2016/02/courtesy-professionalism-respect.html

On Twitter: @ALALibrary @NYPDnews @WMLNJ

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Illinois Attorney General Investigates Crime by Orland Park Public Library Board of Trustees

OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
STATE OF ILLINOIS
Lisa Madigan
ATTORNEY GENERAL

September 1, 2015


Via electronic mail 
Ms. Nancy W. Healy, President
Orland Park Public Library Board of Trustees
14921 Ravinia Avenue
Orland Park, Illinois 60462
nhealy@orlandparklibrary.org

RE: OMA Request for Review – 2015 PAC 37132

Dear Ms. Healy:

     The Public Access Bureau has received the enclosed Request for Review in which Mr. Dan Kleinman alleges that the Orland Park Public Library Board of Trustees (Board) violated the Open Meetings Act (OMA). Specifically, Mr. Kleinman alleges that the Board denied access to its board meeting held on August 17, 2015, by locking the door and not allowing all of the people who wanted to attend the meeting inside the room where the meeting was held. We construe the Request for Review as alleging possible violations of section 2.01 of OMA (5 ILCS 120/2.01 (West 2014) (providing that all meetings "shall be held at specified times and places which are convenient and open to the public."). We have determined that further action is warranted.

     In order to further evaluate this matter, please provide a written response to the allegations raised by Mr. Kleinman's Request for Review. Please also provide a copy of the agenda, minutes (draft form, if necessary), and any recordings from the August 17, 2015, meeting.

     This information must be submitted to our office within seven (7) business days after receipt of this letter. 5 ILCS 120/3.5(b) (West 2014). As we review this matter, we will notify you if we require additional records or information. Please note that under OMA, "[t]he Public Access Counselor shall forward a copy of the answer or redacted answer, if furnished, to the person submitting the request for review. The requester may, but is not required to, respond in writing[.]" 5 ILCS 120/3.5(c) (West 2014). If you claim that any portion of your written response is confidential, please send two versions of your response letter: a complete copy



Ms. Nancy W. Healy
September 1, 2015
Page 2

for this office's confidential review and a redacted version suitable for this office to forward to the requester.

     Please contact me at (312) 814-5201 if you have questions or would like to discuss this matter. Thank you.

Very truly yours,

/s/

EDIE STEINBERG
Assistant Attorney General 
Public Access Bureau

Enclosure

cc: Via electronic mail
      Mr. Dan Kleinman (will receive letter only)
      641 Shunpike Road #123
      Chatham, New Jersey 07928
      safelibraries@gmail.com







Gmail                                         Safe Libraries

Request for Review Under OMA of OPPL Library Board of Trustees



Safe Libraries Thu, Aug 27, 2015 at 12:21 AM

To: PublicAccess@atg.state.il.us
Cc: spratt@atg.state.il.us, paccess@atg.state.il.us

Sarah Pratt, Public Access Counselor
Office of the Attorney General
500 S 2nd St
Springfield, IL 62706
DELIVERY VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL

          Re:  Request for Review Under OMA of 
                 17 August 2015 Meeting of the Library Board of 
                 Orland Park Public Library, Orland Park, IL

This is a request for review with the Public Access Counselor as to whether there has been another violation of the Open Meetings Act [OMA] by the Orland Park Public Library [OPPL], Orland Park, IL.  

On 17 August 2015, the date of a regularly scheduled board of trustees meeting, at the time scheduled for the meeting to begin, the board locked the doors and refused to admit the public.  Any member of the public in the room before the meeting began could stay during the meeting, but if they left the room to visit the restroom, they were not readmitted.  

There are other indicia of the intentional blocking of access in violation of the law, and I incorporate by reference the following from library patron Kevin DuJan who attended the meeting and fortunately was present in the room before the meeting began and the doors were locked: 

After the meeting was completed where the doors were locked the entire time, and despite the various interruptions caused by members of the public attempting to attend the meeting, the board president pretended she had no idea the doors were locked.  A video of that can be viewed here as Nancy Wendt Healy is directly asked about this then affects a look of bewilderment as if she had no clue the doors were locked and people were knocking and banging to get in: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1082320331779851  

Later, library director Mary Weimar admitted the doors were indeed locked during the meeting.  She claimed they were locked due to a singles event on another date that was advertised incorrectly.

p.2

Library boards of trustees are empowered and required to follow the law.  Under 75 ILCS 5, Section 2-1, “To provide local public institutions of general education for citizens of Illinois, the corporate authorities of any city may establish and maintain a public library for the use and benefit of the residents of the city….”  Under Section 1-3, “Every library established under this Act shall be forever for the use of the residents and taxpayers …, subject to such reasonable rules and regulations as the library board may adopt in order to render the use of the library of the greatest benefit to the greatest number of such residents and taxpayers.”  So libraries are for the “use and benefit” of patrons, and library boards are to set “reasonable rules and regulations” to “render the use of the library of the greatest benefit to the greatest number….”  The specific duties of the board are described in Section 4-7.

Section 2-7 allows boards to be dissolved for failure to perform duties such as (a)(1) “fail[ure] to hold regular meetings of the board” or (a)(3) “fail[ure] to perform the duties and functions imposed by law.”

One of those “duties and functions imposed by law” is OMA.  Library board of trustee meetings must be held in accordance with OMA. The library board of trustees is responsible for the meeting and the locking of the doors. Since OMA requires open public meetings, the library board must comply with OMA and not lock people out of public meetings.  The law does not specifically state that library boards may not lock the doors at the beginning of meetings, but that is so obvious that no one can be surprised the law does not specify doors to open public meetings must be kept unlocked during the open public portion of any meeting.

The library director works for the board. The library director acts as the board directs. The library director does what the board wants. 

The library director admitted she locked the doors, so no excuse as to why she locked the doors should be heard.  The mere fact that the doors were locked during an open public meeting is a violation of the OMA.  

That aside, her asserted reason for locking the doors was, by her own admission, to keep certain members of the public out of the meeting.  The library director admitted she locked the doors specifically to keep people who were part of the Frisky Singles group out of the board meeting.  Why weren't people who came for the Frisky Singles group allowed into the open public meeting?  If there was no dating meeting going on that night, why couldn't the Frisky Singles come into the meeting and be part of the civic process and participate in their government?  They were already at the library.  They were already in the room, or they could have been.  But they were ostensibly unwelcome in this meeting and the doors were locked to keep them out.  Why?  That’s an OMA violation right there.

In this case the board wanted the doors locked. The board either asked the library director to lock the doors or it okayed the actions of the library director in locking the doors. This is the board's actions, not the library director's actions; she merely acts at the behest of the board.

While the library director says she locked the doors to keep out Frisky Singles or some such event, that is false. She actually locked the doors because the board directed her to do so, or allowed the condition to exist where the doors were locked at the time for the meeting to begin and kept locked throughout, barring allowing people to egress and readmitting few.  

Then the board president acted like the board was clueless that the doors had been locked. 

That is the board locking the doors to prohibit public participation in violation of law and using the library director as the cover to claim it was to keep out Frisky Singles. That is the board's actions. These actions are intentional.  They are blamed on the library director.  The library director blamed the wrong date on a publication advertising a singles event.  The library, having signs all over the library, did not simply put up a

p.3

sign to redirect any errant singles. It is not credible that a library board would violate OMA and use as the excuse that a few people if any might walk into the wrong room.

The board wanted to block people from entering the meeting that OMA requires to be public. Further, disobeying OMA necessarily means disobeying the duty of the board as described in 75 ILCS 5.  It’s a cascade of illegality.

With respect to OMA, section 2(a) reads, “Openness required. All meetings of public bodies shall be open to the public….”  In my opinion, this locking of the doors at the scheduled start of the meeting violates section 2(a) and is an intentional, knowing, and purposeful criminal violation of OMA, thereby a violation of 75 ILCS 5 as well.

OMA section 2.06(g) reads, “Any person shall be permitted an opportunity to address public officials under the rules established and recorded by the public body.”  In my opinion, keeping the people trying to get into the meeting locked out violated 2.06(g) and is an intentional, knowing, and purposeful criminal violations of OMA, thereby a violation of 75 ILCS 5 as well.

OMA section 4 reads, “Any person violating any of the provisions of this Act … shall be guilty of a Class C misdemeanor.”  To me, since the board acted together and left the doors locked throughout the entire time scheduled for an open meeting, and since the law states “any person,” each library trustee is individually liable for violations of OMA 2(a) and OMA 2.06(g) and should have to suffer the consequences consecutively, not concurrently.

The board’s attorney from Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins was present, so not having the presence of council should not be relevant to this matter as council was present.  While the attorney took no action to unlock the doors, the library board is ultimately responsible for the library board’s actions or failures thereof.  Whether the lawyer failed to perform his duty or did so incompetently is a matter for another venue.

Let me add the OPPL board of trustees is a repeat offender of OMA (and FOIA).  This matter might best be considered in that light.  This is not an innocent library board trying not to be interrupted by errant singles looking for a missing meeting.  This is a library board that engages in a pattern of violating various open government laws and announcing how such laws and Attorney General advisory opinions do not apply to them, all in an effort to continue to provide child p0rnography in accordance with American Library Association [ALA] guidance and direct input.  ALA even used or uses OPPL employees including the library director to train librarians and library trustees to thwart child p0rnography whistleblowers.  To this day, child p0rnography remains available in the library despite claims that it is not, because the library follows ALA diktat to leave computers intended for adults unfiltered—since, per ALA diktat, librarians are not judges and cannot determine what is child p0rn.

This door-locking incident is part of a continuing pattern of obstruction of open government laws despite OMA section 1 which includes, “Policy. It is the public policy of this State that public bodies exist to aid in the conduct of the people's business and that the people have a right to be informed as to the conduct of their business.”  There is also the “right to attend all meetings at which any business of a public body is discussed or acted upon in any way.”  Locking the board meeting doors at the scheduled start of the meeting, feigning ignorance of having done so, and using the library director to blame it on an errant singles event means the meeting was not open to the public.  Blaming it on a simple error that might send people to the wrong room is beyond the pale.  That is no reason to violate OMA.  They could have simply put up a sign.

Please consider that library boards are required by law to follow the law, including OMA, then please review the actions of the OPPL library board to determine whether OMA violations occurred, and, if so, consider that each member of the board present that evening “shall be guilty of a Class C misdemeanor.”  That means Nancy

p.4

W. Healy, President; Denis P. Ryan, Vice-President; Diane I. Jennings, Treasurer; Catherine M. Lebert, Secretary; Christian Barcelona, Trustee; Joanna Leafblad, Trustee, and Elan Kleis, Trustee.  A Class C misdemeanor in Illinois is a criminal offense, a crime.  Each member of the library board should end up having a criminal record if an OMA violation has been found.  Being elected to serve as a library trustee and committing a crime while serving in that capacity does not absolve anyone of any crime or the consequences thereof.  At some point there has to be consequences for the library board’s continuing series of violations of open government laws, let alone other laws.

Lastly, as this issue of locking doors at the beginning of open public meetings may involve many public bodies, is so cut and dried, and as OPPL has stated advisory opinions do not constrain the library board, please consider writing a binding opinion.  

Thank you for your consideration.


--
----------
Dan Kleinman
Library Watchdog at SafeLibraries
641 Shunpike Rd #123
Chatham, NJ 07928
[Elided]




See also:




NOTE ADDED 3 SEPTEMBER 2015:

Added another see also link.

Adding graphic of wanted poster:

Wanted: Orland Park Library Board for crime of violating Open Meeting Act:



Also, today I filed a FOIA request related to this matter:

Orland Park Public Library:

This is a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request.  I am a member of the media making a noncommercial FOIA request for documents to be produced to me electronically at my email address. The results of this FOIA production may be published for the public to see and may be part of an analysis done for what I am writing about the OPPL (Orland Park Public Library). The law provides five business days to comply.

Background:

Yesterday I published the following:

“Illinois Attorney General Investigates Crime by Orland Park Public Library Board of Trustees”

http://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2015/09/Crime.html

Therefore, today I seek information related to the locking of the doors at the August library board meeting. I feel locking people out of supposedly public meetings and committing a crime in doing so by violating the Open Meetings Act is very newsworthy, especially for a public library that covered up child p0rnography and was given "intellectual freedom" awards as a result, and I want to research the matter as best I can so that I may be as accurate and informative as possible when I write about this.

I am also very curious why your paid lawyer from Klein, Thorpe & Jenkins did not act to prevent the library board from committing yet another in a string of crimes while being represented by KTJ.  I am hoping to elucidate that as well, also for publication.  This is especially relevant as that law firm trains and will again be training at the Illinois Library Association on the very issue it failed to act upon, and it represents many libraries.

FOIA Request:

I require the following to be produced pursuant to the FOIA:

1)  All communications within the past year of any kind (and if emails all BCCs and identify of each recipient in any distribution lists in TO, CC, or BCC) related to the doors.

Your response should include everything.  By way of example, this should include communications about the doors going to be locked, actually locked, or having been locked, and it should include communications with anyone in the American Library Association, the Illinois Library Association, the Orland Park Police, the Village of Orland Park, and especially Klein, Thorpe & Jenkins.  It should also include internal communications between the board and the staff, the library director and the board, the library director and the staff, the library director and the maintenance engineer, and vice versa, etc.  It should also include communications with the PAC that is now investigating you, any media such as the Chicago Tribune, any contractors such as locksmiths, any singles group that was mistakenly scheduled to use the room, or any library patrons who may have complained about the doors.  All communications.  Of any kind.  Within the past year.  Related to the doors.

2)  All communications within the past year of any kind (and if emails all BCCs and identify of each recipient in any distribution lists in TO, CC, or BCC) related not specifically to the doors, but as a result or effect of the doors going to be, being, or having been locked.

Your response should include everything.  By way of example, this should include communications about the the result or effect of the doors going to be locked, actually locked, or having been locked, and it should include communications with anyone in the American Library Association, the Illinois Library Association, the Orland Park Police, the Village of Orland Park, and especially Klein, Thorpe & Jenkins.  It should also include internal communications between the board and the staff, the library director and the board, the library director and the staff, the library director and the maintenance engineer, and vice versa, etc.  It should also includes communications with the PAC that is now investigating you, any media such as the Chicago Tribune, any contractors such as locksmiths, any singles group that was mistakenly scheduled to use the room, or any library patrons who may have complained about the result or effect of the doors going to be or actually locked, or having been locked.  All communications.  Of any kind.  Within the past year.  Related to the result or effect of the doors going to be locked, actually locked, or having been locked.

3) All legal bills for any work of any kind related to the doors or the result or effect of the doors going to be, actually, or having been locked.

4) All legal bills for the time Klein, Thorpe & Jenkins worked on anything at all for the library on the day of the board meeting.

5) All policies written on circumstances under which the doors of library board meetings may be locked before or during the library board meetings.  This is restricted to doors that lock out the public from meetings, not the doors related to library boards going into executive session.

6) All communications within the past month of any kind (and if emails all BCCs and identify of each recipient in any distribution lists in TO, CC, or BCC) by anyone related to any singles group or event.

Your response should include everything.  By way of example, information I am seeking will help me answer whose fault was the room booking mixup? Was this an error by the person who was supposed to book the rooms? Did the library director intervene in any way?  Why were there no signs printed and posted to redirect people?  When are the normal meeting dates, times, and locations for the singles group?  What was the errant message to or about the singles group?  Where was it scheduled to meet on the night of the board meeting, errantly or not?  What is the URL of the calendar patrons can view to see a schedule of events?  Were and postings made to the library’s Facebook page about the event and what is the URL?

Thank you for your time and attention.

Dan Kleinman, Library Watchdog


URL of this page: safelibraries.blogspot.com/2015/09/Crime.html

On Twitter: @ IlAttyGeneral @OrlandPkLibrary @VillageOrlandPk

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Orland Park Public Library Settlement Agreement

Here's the Settlement Agreement and Release (link) between Megan Fox (link), Kevin DuJan, and the Orland Park Public Library (link), signed by the parties with library director Mary Weimar signing for the library.  It is dated 19 March 2015.  The settled cases involved "the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, 5 ILCS 140, et seq. ('FOIA') and the Illinois Open Meetings Act, 5 ILCS 120, et seq. ('OMA')."

Here's a video of the attorney for the library describing the above Settlement at the library's 16 March board meeting:


Here is more media coverage:


I am directly involved in these cases, the settlement, and media reports, but not by name.  I'll be writing more about this matter in the future.

On this page I'm excluding my commentary so people can see the OPPL Settlement (link) without anyone's added viewpoint.  So feel free to spread around either URL below these headline graphics from the Chicago Tribune and the Orland Park Patch.






URL of this page: safelibraries.blogspot.com/2015/03/oppl-settlement.html
The Settlement itself: tinyurl.com/OPPLSettlement

On Twitter: +American Library Association @AP @CookCntyCourt +DuJan Media @ECWDogs #FOIA @HemantMehta +Illinois Library Association @ILAttyGeneral @IllLibraryAssoc @IntolerantFox @HillBuzz @JacksonLewisPC @LaurenZumbach @LoevyAndLoevy +Megan Fox @MVTopic +Orland Park Public Library @OIF #OMA @OrlandParkPatch @OrlandPkLibrary #SunshineWeek @VillageOrlandPk

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Jaw Dropper: Library Needs to Raise Taxes Due to $100K Legal Bill from Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins to Defend Access to Child Porn

"They squandered $100,000 on
their attorneys to fight patrons who want
to shut down the access point to child
porn in this library."
CLICK HERE TO SEE VIDEO!
Watch this video—it's a jaw dropper.  A library needs to raise taxes because of being over budget to pay Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins, Ltd., $100K to defend child porn, for almost a year now!

Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins.  This is the same firm I wrote about yesterday that violated the law to hide its legal bills from the public!  See:  "Library Censorship: Excessively Redacted Legal Bills in FOIA Response."

Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins.  This is the same firm that manufactures evidence!  See:  "Library Lawyers Manufacture Evidence But Inspire Humorous Video; ALA Takes Opportunity to Teach How to Thwart Complaining Patrons."

Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins.  This is the same firm that does not reveal even to the Illinois Attorney General that Illinois library law blocks porn, even legal porn, from all Illinois libraries!  See:  "Library Censorship to Defend Child Porn; Another Request for Review Filed With the Illinois Attorney General."

Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins.  This is the same firm found guilty of holding a meeting on Lincoln's Birthday holiday in the Land of Lincoln where policy was approved to allow porn and silence me, even though they wrote the book on the law!  See:  "Beware the 'Dennis Walsh Watusi' @ Orland Park."

Now, keeping Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins in mind and remembering we are talking about a public library (Orland Park Public Library) and publicly elected officials defending access to child porn, watch this jaw dropping video:


"To keep child porn available in this library.
That's what the $60,000 will be used for"


On Twitter:  @ECWDogs @ILAttyGeneral @IntolerantFox @OrlandPkLibrary @VillageOrlandPk

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Illinois Attorney General Launches Investigation Into Public Library Censoring Me In Violation of Law

The Illinois Attorney General has launched investigations of the Orland Park Public Library, Orland Park, IL, for its censorship of–yours truly.  That's right, me.  Twice, no less, in "OMA Request for Review – 2014 PAC 29489" and in "OMA Request for Review – 2014 PAC 29540."  Hat tip to Megan Fox for making me aware of this:
  • "Two More Letters Opening Investigations Into the Wrongdoings of the OPPL-BoT; This One is Really Interesting Because It Involves the Library From Prohibiting Dan Kleinman From Speaking," by Megan Fox, Fans of Megan Fox, 9 June 2014:
    Two more letters opening investigations into the wrongdoings of the OPPL-BoT This one is really interesting because it involves the Library from prohibiting Dan Kleinman from speaking.  The ALA lists Dan Kleinman as their number 1 enemy because he is the nation's leading expert on the lies the ALA tells the public!  The OMA does not prohibit people from speaking via video-conference, but the OPPL-BoT passed unreasonable restrictions specifically to silence Kleinman!  Keep in mind that the OPPL-BoT regular teleconferences in to conduct their meetings.  Why not just let Dan Kleinman have 5 minutes?  What's the big deal?  It's 5 minutes!  This board can't listen to someone well-educated on the subject for 5 measly minutes?

Neither 2014 PAC 29489 nor 29540 name me, but both are about blocking someone from teleconferencing at public meetings, in this case the monthly library board of trustees meetings.  I was the only one who asked to speak at two meetings; was signed up on the list of speakers; was ready, willing, and able to teleconference, but was not allowed to speak.  I was the only one the library board specifically wrote policy about to silence me–at its criminal meeting in violation of law during a state holiday, as the Illinois Attorney General has recently determined.

To explain this matter further, see my own Request for Review made to the Illinois Attorney General on this very issue of the library repeatedly blocking me in violation of the law.  I spell out the law that blocks porn from all Illinois libraries, and that is likely exactly why I have been repeatedly blocked and why the censorship continues.  These are elected public officials blocking me in violation of the law, so this is censorship:


Winston Churchill: "[S]ome people's idea of [free speech] is that they
are free to say what they like, but if anyone says
anything back, that is an outrage."


On Twitter:  @HillBuzz @ILAttyGeneral @IntolerantFox @OrlandPkLibrary @Skype @VillageOrlandPk

Saturday, May 31, 2014

Library Board Commits Felonies and Misdemeanors

A felony is not a game.
Did a library commit a Class D Felony by calling the police needlessly during a library board meeting and by other means?  A complaint was made via a 911 call about a "disruption" by library patrons who have investigated the library and found it repeatedly defies the law, covers up the crime of child pornography, and thwarts police efforts to stop registered sex offenders from violating the law.  Even the state's Attorney General has found the library repeatedly violates the law and commits Class C misdemeanors.

Remarkably, this is all captured in YouTube videos.  Watch the videos, then make your own conclusions.  A felony is not a game, especially when committed by elected officials seeking to silence whistleblowers.

As a background, a public library board quorum meets illegally and in secret before the official library board meeting.  The quorum apparently firmed up plans already in place for how to entrap patrons who complain about the library board repeatedly breaking the law:

Then the meeting begins.  Here is the library board meeting in progress.  It contains a "disruption," the resultant 911 call to the police, and the arrival of the police:



Here is the recording of the 911 call to police that occurred at the meeting shown above:



Here is the library personnel, the library lawyer, and the police colluding to entrap the patrons (though the police have been provided with false information by the library designed to mislead them, such as the false claim on the 911 call that the call was intentionally disrupted by one of the patrons):



If "disruption" is a crime, look at all the actual disruption by the library board itself and the library attorney himself:



Here is a very good overview of the crimes, including the fake 911 call felony, from another source:

Now here is the state law on disorderly conduct, emphasis mine:

    (720 ILCS 5/26-1) (from Ch. 38, par. 26-1)

    Sec. 26-1. Disorderly conduct.

    (a) A person commits disorderly conduct when he or she knowingly:
        (1) Does any act in such unreasonable manner as to alarm or disturb another and to provoke a breach of the peace;
        (2) Transmits or causes to be transmitted in any manner to the fire department of any city, town, village or fire protection district a false alarm of fire, knowing at the time of the transmission that there is no reasonable ground for believing that the fire exists;
        (3) Transmits or causes to be transmitted in any manner to another a false alarm to the effect that a bomb or other explosive of any nature or a container holding poison gas, a deadly biological or chemical contaminant, or radioactive substance is concealed in a place where its explosion or release would endanger human life, knowing at the time of the transmission that there is no reasonable ground for believing that the bomb, explosive or a container holding poison gas, a deadly biological or chemical contaminant, or radioactive substance is concealed in the place;
        (3.5) Transmits or causes to be transmitted a threat of destruction of a school building or school property, or a threat of violence, death, or bodily harm directed against persons at a school, school function, or school event, whether or not school is in session;
        (4) Transmits or causes to be transmitted in any manner to any peace officer, public officer or public employee a report to the effect that an offense will be committed, is being committed, or has been committed, knowing at the time of the transmission that there is no reasonable ground for believing that the offense will be committed, is being committed, or has been committed;
        (5) Transmits or causes to be transmitted a false report to any public safety agency without the reasonable grounds necessary to believe that transmitting the report is necessary for the safety and welfare of the public; or
        (6) Calls the number "911" for the purpose of making or transmitting a false alarm or complaint and reporting information when, at the time the call or transmission is made, the person knows there is no reasonable ground for making the call or transmission and further knows that the call or transmission could result in the emergency response of any public safety agency;
        (7) Transmits or causes to be transmitted a false report to the Department of Children and Family Services under Section 4 of the "Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act";
        (8) Transmits or causes to be transmitted a false report to the Department of Public Health under the Nursing Home Care Act, the Specialized Mental Health Rehabilitation Act of 2013, or the ID/DD Community Care Act;
        (9) Transmits or causes to be transmitted in any manner to the police department or fire department of any municipality or fire protection district, or any privately owned and operated ambulance service, a false request for an ambulance, emergency medical technician-ambulance or emergency medical technician-paramedic knowing at the time there is no reasonable ground for believing that the assistance is required;
        (10) Transmits or causes to be transmitted a false report under Article II of "An Act in relation to victims of violence and abuse", approved September 16, 1984, as amended;
        (11) Enters upon the property of another and for a lewd or unlawful purpose deliberately looks into a dwelling on the property through any window or other opening in it; or
        (12) While acting as a collection agency as defined in the Collection Agency Act or as an employee of the collection agency, and while attempting to collect an alleged debt, makes a telephone call to the alleged debtor which is designed to harass, annoy or intimidate the alleged debtor.

    (b) Sentence. A violation of subsection (a)(1) of this Section is a Class C misdemeanor. A violation of subsection (a)(5) or (a)(11) of this Section is a Class A misdemeanor. A violation of subsection (a)(8) or (a)(10) of this Section is a Class B misdemeanor. A violation of subsection (a)(2), (a)(3.5), (a)(4), (a)(6), (a)(7), or (a)(9) of this Section is a Class 4 felony. A violation of subsection (a)(3) of this Section is a Class 3 felony, for which a fine of not less than $3,000 and no more than $10,000 shall be assessed in addition to any other penalty imposed.
    A violation of subsection (a)(12) of this Section is a Business Offense and shall be punished by a fine not to exceed $3,000. A second or subsequent violation of subsection (a)(7) or (a)(5) of this Section is a Class 4 felony. A third or subsequent violation of subsection (a)(11) of this Section is a Class 4 felony.

    (c) In addition to any other sentence that may be imposed, a court shall order any person convicted of disorderly conduct to perform community service for not less than 30 and not more than 120 hours, if community service is available in the jurisdiction and is funded and approved by the county board of the county where the offense was committed. In addition, whenever any person is placed on supervision for an alleged offense under this Section, the supervision shall be conditioned upon the performance of the community service.
    This subsection does not apply when the court imposes a sentence of incarceration.

    (d) In addition to any other sentence that may be imposed, the court shall order any person convicted of disorderly conduct under paragraph (3) of subsection (a) involving a false alarm of a threat that a bomb or explosive device has been placed in a school to reimburse the unit of government that employs the emergency response officer or officers that were dispatched to the school for the cost of the search for a bomb or explosive device. For the purposes of this Section, "emergency response" means any incident requiring a response by a police officer, a firefighter, a State Fire Marshal employee, or an ambulance.

(Source: P.A. 97-38, eff. 6-28-11; 97-227, eff. 1-1-12; 97-813, eff. 7-13-12; 97-1108, eff. 1-1-13; 98-104, eff. 7-22-13.)


You saw the evidence.  You saw the law.  You saw the whistleblowers speaking up to stop the criminality in the public library.  Now you make up your own minds.  Has the library or has it not committed at least one felony requiring a minimum prison term of one year? 

Orland Park Public Library's many false police reports to stifle whistleblowers.

 URL of this page:  safelibraries.blogspot.com/2014/05/LibraryFelony.html

On Twitter:  @ECWDogs @HillBuzz @IntolerantFox @OrlandPkLibrary @VillageOrlandPk

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Library Censorship to Defend Child Porn; Another Request for Review Filed With the Illinois Attorney General

"To learn who rules over you, simply find out
who you are not allowed to criticize."
Not Voltaire but it fits OPPL-BoT perfectly.
Dear Illinois Attorney General,

I respectfully request a review of the actions of the Orland Park Public Library [OPPL] for violation of the Open Meetings Act [OMA] by denying me the right of public comment at its 19 May 2014 OPPL Board of Trustees [OPPL-BoT] meeting. This is the second time I have been denied that right despite OMA and library policy and the second time requested a review. The first Request for Review was for violating OMA during the 16 December 2014 OPPL-BoT meeting: “Open Meetings Act Violations by the Board of Library Trustees of the Orland Park Public Library.” ( http://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2014/02/OPPL.html )


OPPL Censorship Policy Is Ultra Vires

After that first time I attempted to speak, was denied, and I filed a Request for Review, OPPL-BoT reacted by creating policy specifically designed to exclude me since I’m the only person who wants to speak electronically. I live in New Jersey so a personal visit just to speak for five minutes to a library board that repeatedly violates the law could be obviated by speaking electronically. OPPL policy in place at the time of both meetings and now is “Section 7. Teleconferencing shall not be provided for members of the public to use in order to attend or participate in a meeting.” I was going to participate via Skype or FaceTime provided by OPPL library patron Megan Fox, not by teleconferencing provided by OPPL. I was not restricted from speaking via policy, yet both times I was blocked from speaking by OPPL-BoT in violation of OMA. These are elected officials acting in their official capacity as a library board to refuse to follow the law that allows public comment. They also violate state and local law that created the library and does not permit the library board to act ultra vires or outside the law. These elected officials defend child pornography in the public library despite the law, as evidenced by their actions as opposed to their words, while practicing government censorship when it comes to someone seeking to illuminate the illegality of allowing porn in OPPL under Illinois state law, Orland Park local law, and OPPL policy–until they change it, that is, but even then it will violate the law.


OPPL-BoT Shows It Will Not Comply With Law Nor Attorney General Determinations

Worse than simply blocking me repeatedly, OPPL-BoT’s latest free speech denial comes at a time when the Attorney General has already warned the library, “This office cautions the Board to avoid restricting public comment on substantive bases that are not addressed by its established and recorded rules.” And worse than a mere warning, the Attorney General determined OPPL-BoT violated OMA by holding an illegal meeting on a legal holiday, and it was at this illegal meeting that OPPL-BoT approved the policy specifically designed to block me, and OPPL-BoT used that policy from that illegal meeting as the excuse to block me from speaking days ago. So in the face of the Attorney General ruling the meeting was illegal, OPPL-BoT just ignored the Attorney General and held up its illegal policy to block me. On advice of counsel, no less. When library patron Kevin DuJan specifically pointed out the library was refusing to allow me to speak in violation of the law and the Attorney General’s determination finding violations of the law, the library reacted by threatening to arrest Mr. DuJan. OPPL-BoT has shown a clear and convincing disdain for the law in general and the Attorney General’s determinations specifically.


What OPPL Sought to Block: My Advising State and Local Law Precludes Porn In Public Libraries Statewide

What is it that so motivates OPPL-BoT to defy the law and the Attorney General with cheerful briskness by repeatedly blocking me? What could I possible say in five minutes that they don’t want people to hear? This is relevant as it shows why OPPL-BoT is blocking me, specifically, I’m saying the exact opposite of what it says to mislead people at meetings and in the media, and I back up what I say with reliable sources, such as Supreme Court cases. If people knew the truth, they would know Internet porn in Illinois libraries is illegal, libraries that allow it are acting outside the law, and municipalities that allow libraries to act outside the law are exposing all citizens to the potential for serious liability, let alone the harm done to the victims of Internet pornography on both sides of the camera. In short, if people knew porn may be legally excluded from public libraries as the law requires, they would choose for themselves to block Internet pornography and would not be misled by anyone into keeping porn available despite the law.


Municipal Law Precludes Internet Porn in OPPL

OPPL was created by Village of Orland Park Ordinance No. 77 issued 14 July 1941 stating “That a free public library and reading room be established for the use and benefits of the inhabitants of the Village of Orland Park … in accordance with the provisions of the Libraries Act, Chapter 81, Illinois Revised Statutes….” ( http://www.orlandparklibrary.org/documents/policies/ord77.pdf ) We see the library has a limited purpose. It is for the “use and benefits” of the local population it supports. It is not established for any purpose whatsoever, rather, it has limitations. Internet pornography is effectively excluded by that “use and benefits” clause because it has neither use nor benefit. On the contrary, Internet porn harms people. It harms the viewers, it harms the people who interact with the viewers by accident or force including librarians and library employees, and it harms the people who are forced to create pornography, such as sex trafficked children and adults.

The word “benefit” is from the Latin bene factum. Bene meaning good. There is nothing bene about Internet pornography in a public library, let alone anywhere else. The display of Internet pornography in OPPL violates Village of Orland Park Ordinance No. 77. It is not for the “use and benefit” of anyone, as required by law. Rather, it does the opposite and causes harm. To any extent OPPL-BoT permits Internet pornography in OPPL, it is acting ultra vires and harming the community.


State Law Precludes Internet Porn in Illinois Libraries

The Illinois Local Library Act (75 ILCS 5) referenced by the municipal ordinance also limits what governments may provide in public libraries, only it applies across Illinois, not just in OPPL. Throughout the entire state of Illinois, the law states public libraries may be created “[t]o provide local public institutions of general education for citizens of Illinois” ( http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs5.asp?ActID=990&ChapterID=16 ). “General education” does not mean Internet pornography. Also, “the library board may adopt [reasonable rules and regulations] in order to render the use of the library of the greatest benefit to the greatest number of such residents and taxpayers.” So, similar to the “use and benefits” clause of the ordinance, the state law requires that the library’s use be “of the greatest benefit to the greatest number of such residents and taxpayers.” Any library in the entire state of Illinois, not just OPPL, is violating state law if it allows Internet pornography. It would be acting ultra vires. For example, have you heard the news for many years about the constant crimes attributable to porn in the Chicago Public Library? Have you been there lately and seen the rows of unfettered porn with children walking about? Did you know the library’s director blamed the parents for letting their children walk about in the library? Now if Internet porn is so beneficial, why is she criticizing parents for letting children see such beneficial material?


The US Supreme Court Finds Pornography Is Traditionally Blocked From Libraries

And how do we know pornography neither educates nor benefits communities, from a legal basis, let alone common sense? We look at the United States Supreme Court case that the American Library Association [ALA] and the ACLU brought and lost big to try to stop the Children’s Internet Protection Act, the law requiring libraries to use porn filters if obtaining certain federal funding. US v. ALA, 539 US 194 (2003) ( http://laws.findlaw.com/us/539/194.html ) made it clear that the purpose of public libraries does not include providing Internet pornography. Indeed, tame-in-comparison print pornography is excluded from most libraries:

Public libraries pursue the worthy missions of facilitating learning and cultural enrichment. …. [P]ublic libraries seek to provide materials “that would be of the greatest direct benefit or interest to the community.” [NOTE: substantially similar to the language in 75 ILCS 5 and the municipal ordinance.] …. To this end, libraries collect only those materials deemed to have “requisite and appropriate quality.” …. A public library … provides Internet access … for the same reasons it offers other library resources: to facilitate research, learning, and recreational pursuits by furnishing materials of requisite and appropriate quality. ….
….
A library's need to exercise judgment in making collection decisions depends on its traditional role in identifying suitable and worthwhile material; it is no less entitled to play that role when it collects material from the Internet than when it collects material from any other source. Most libraries already exclude pornography from their print collections because they deem it inappropriate for inclusion. We do not subject these decisions to heightened scrutiny; it would make little sense to treat libraries' judgments to block online pornography any differently, when these judgments are made for just the same reason.
….
[P]ublic libraries' use of Internet filtering software does not violate their patrons' First Amendment rights….


Internet Pornography Has Neither Use Nor Benefit so US Supreme Court Ruled It May Be Blocked

So we learn from the US Supreme Court that Internet pornography may be legally blocked from public libraries precisely because it does not benefit communities. And since the state and local law requires libraries to act for the benefit of the people, Internet pornography is excluded. Libraries in Illinois providing Internet pornography are acting outside the law that restricts libraries in a way that precludes Internet porn.


Has OPPL-BoT Ever Explained Why Porn is Beneficial in Libraries Despite the Law?

Has ALA or OPPL-BoT ever once explained why people are supposed to think Internet pornography is beneficial in public libraries and should be allowed despite the law saying it shouldn’t? I understand both groups have been for months attacking Megan Fox, Kevin DuJan, and me to avoid substantive issues. Have they explained how Internet pornography benefits the community? Of course not. They can’t. There is no benefit. Having no benefit, and indeed being harmful, Internet pornography allowed by an Illinois library violates Illinois law. And OPPL is an Illinois library. And ALA and OPPL and their attorneys attack or silence people who expose their misinformation as their means of pushing ahead with the porn agenda–by not addressing substantive issues. It is a tactic that often works. Just look at how long child porn has gone unreported in OPPL–years. Right now OPPL-BoT is ignoring the Attorney General. I predict if the Attorney General continues to find violations of the law, at some point OPPL-BoT and/or ALA will begin attacking the Attorney General instead of just ignoring her.


This is Why OPPL-BoT Bullies and Will Continue to Violate OMA

I suspect my saying the above in a five minute public comment combined with OPPL-BoT not wanting people to hear that message is why OPPL-BoT repeatedly violates OMA to censor my free speech and the speech of others. I also suspect OPPL-BoT knows it is breaking state and local law by making Internet pornography available, thereby acting ultra vires. I suspect its repeatedly silencing its critics and violating OMA is a bullying effort to impose its harmful lawlessness on the community by freezing people into inaction or by running out the clock. Fortunately for Orland Park, neither Megan Fox nor Kevin DuJan are intimidated or are giving up. Sadly, the illegality in OPPL continues on. For over eight months now OPPL-BoT has successfully defended its illegal actions with threats, intimidation, false calls to the police, illegal meetings on a legal holiday passing policy to allow porn despite the law and silence critics despite the law, violation of Illinois library law, repeated violations of OMA, etc., and never once an explanation of how providing Internet pornography benefits the community and complies with the law. They have turned the tables on innocent victims forcing them to suffer from porn, all while attacking them for complaining and not explaining why Internet porn is supposedly legal in libraries. I am hoping the Attorney General will see the open defiance in OPPL-BoT’s actions and being to restore law and order in this local library and perhaps statewide.


Local Police Are Stymied by Lawbreaking Library

Recent investigations by Megan Fox reveal the Orland Park police have been stymied by OPPL in efforts to stop a registered sex offender from viewing pornography ( http://www.facebook.com/MeganFoxWriter/posts/809933065685247 ):

Meet David Varlotta. He likes Orland Park Library a lot. An informed source told me this man has been seen by police on a regular basis on the computers at OPPL. He is unemployed and goes to OPPL “nearly every day.” Mary Weimar has been informed by police that he is not legally allowed to use the internet. The Library claims they disconnect the device he is on from the internet but they do not ask him to leave. Let me ask you a question. What might a sex offender be doing on a computer for hours on end without access to the internet? Knowing the Library lies about pretty much everything (and I have proof of that from the Illinois Attorney General) do we believe that they actually do cut off internet access to this man on a daily basis and yet he continues to return? What is he doing? Writing his memoirs in a Word doc? Why does Mary Weimar continue to allow a sex offender who committed aggravated sexual abuse against a minor child sit for hours in her building full of children? This is like putting a shark in a kiddie pool. We have FOIAd his record and will have his complete story soon. Stay tuned.




Back to the Policy OPPL-BoT Wrote to Block Me Personally

The policy OPPL created to block me was supposedly effectuated during the OPPL-BoT meeting on the 12 February 2014 holiday. It has been effectively ruled void ab initio by the Attorney General. It is not in effect. The policy in effect before the illegal meeting remains in effect.

The updated policy sought to be implemented at the illegal meeting was designed to block me and me alone since I was the only person seeking to speak electronically. Current policy prohibits merely teleconferencing provided by the library. The updated policy seeks to include other means of communication, including Skype or FaceTime, provided by anyone. The policy used to exclude me states, “All public comments must be given in person. No telephone, video conferencing or other electronic means will be accommodated.”

OPPL-BoT, in its meeting after the illegal 12 February meeting, claims to have affirmed the policy it supposedly effectuated, but such policy is not yet in effect because legally it is impossible to affirm something found to be void ab initio. But OPPL-BoT wants people to think the policy is in effect, despite the law, despite how it discriminates against the disabled since they must only participate in person, so it just acts like the policy is in place.


Again, OPPL-BoT Ignores the Illinois Attorney General

Worse, OPPL-BoT is again ignoring the Attorney General. It used its policy from the illegal meeting and revoted on at the next meeting to block my speaking. The attorney did this. Remember, this is the attorney whose firm represents possibly hundreds of library clients, who wrote the book on Sunshine Laws that is sold throughout the state by the Illinois Municipal League, and who trains librarians on FOIA and OMA laws at the Illinois Library Association. This is no inexperienced attorney. This is no rookie mistake. This is an intentional abuse of authority to bully people into silence in the face of the law and of Attorney General determinations. This is the attorney telling the Attorney General her determinations don’t matter one whit.


The Lack of Public Recital Tossed Aside While Kevin DuJan Gets Threatened with Arrest

To remind everyone, OMA has certain requirements intended to ensure the public’s rights are protected from the very kind of illegal activity OPPL-BoT does repeatedly. Those requirements are not met when a library passes policy at an illegal meeting then claims the next meeting validated what was done at the illegal meeting with a mere quick vote. Public Access Opinion 14-001 dated 10 April 2014 ( http://foia.ilattorneygeneral.net/pdf/opinions/2014/14-001.pdf ) makes it evident that the mere quick vote to reaffirm action at an illegal meeting does not supply a public recital sufficient to comply with the law, namely, section 2(e) of OMA: “(e) Final action. No final action may be taken at a closed meeting. Final action shall be preceded by a public recital of the nature of the matter being considered and other information that will inform the public of the business being conducted.” That was simply not done by OPPL-BoT, the attorney knows it given his expertise and experience, and the Attorney General warned against further restricting public comment, but the library went ahead, ignored the Attorney General, and threatened Kevin DuJan with arrest if he did not stop trying to point out is was illegal to block my public comment.


Library Silences Critics with Illegal Policy

So OPPL-BoT is attempting to silence critics with policy not legally in effect and that violates OMA and the Americans with Disabilities Act [ADA]. “Teleconferencing shall not be provided for members of the public to use in order to attend or participate in a meeting” has supposedly been changed to “All public comments must be given in person. No telephone, video conferencing or other electronic means will be accommodated.” So not only are additional and modern means of communicating ruled off policy, but also the library reveals no one may participate remotely, whether or not the library provides the services. I am hoping the Attorney General will address this.

Setting aside that the library is supporting Internet pornography as free speech when that is not true in libraries, and stifling free speech when anyone reveals the library is acting outside the law by allowing pornography including child pornography, the new policy language OPPL wants people to think is in place appears to represent a clear violation of OMA and ADA. If that policy ever does get properly adopted by OPPL-BoT, it will represent a codification of a violation of OMA, and I or others will seek another Request for Review from the Attorney General. I am certain you cannot simply write library policy that abrogates state law such as OMA.


The Specific Instance That Violates OMA

At the 19 May OPPL-BoT meeting, Kevin DuJan points out I am next to speak on the list but the library denies the request, and that is the action I am asking the Attorney General to review. Exactly how it happened was recorded and placed online. As part of the evidence for this Request for Review, please view the recordings of the meeting, particularly at the end of Kevin DuJan’s public comment. Kevin DuJan says, after he completed his own comment, “Actually, Dan Kleinman is the next person that’s on the list.” Megan Fox then says, “He’s here,” referring to the FaceTime connection. The library then blocks my speech in violation of OMA. Kevin DuJan says, “You have no policy that bans this … that policy is void ab initio. …. You are in violation of the Open Meetings Act.” The library board persisted in blocking my speech even after being told it was violating the law. Mr. DuJan was threatened with arrest if he did not stop arguing that I should be allowed to speak. A fuller transcript can be found at http://tinyurl.com/OPPLViolatesOMA so the facts that evidence the breaking of the law can be fully reviewed. It is the Request for Review filed 21 May 2014 by Kevin DuJan. That Request for Review contains even more detail about exactly how the OMA violation occurred with respect to the subject of my own Request for Review. In the interests of brevity, I ask its facts related to how OPPL-BoT violated OMA by refusing to allow my public comment be included here in my own Request for Review. That Request for Review is hereby incorporated by reference.


Megan Fox Files Request for Review About OPPL-BoT Blocking Me

On 27 May 2014, Megan Fox also filed a Request for Review with the Attorney General ( http://tinyurl.com/OPPLViolatesOMA2 ). Her request is predominantly about the library’s lawbreaking with respect to blocking my public comment. I consider what she said to be factual as well and is hereby incorporated by reference into my own Request for Review. After all, she was the one to whose iPad I was electronically connected and ready to speak. As she points out, “OPPL-BoT desired to keep Dan Kleinman, the national expert on child porn and other evils being accessed in libraries, from speaking during the Public Comment segment.”


OPPL-BoT Evidences an Intention to Defy the Law

And by that time OPPL-BoT was well aware of the Attorney General’s admonition where representative Steve Silverman warned, “This office cautions the Board to avoid restricting public comment on substantive bases that are not addressed by its established and recorded rules.” So OPPL-BoT threw caution to the wind, as it were, and plowed ahead with its lawbreaking by again restricting public comment on substantive bases not addressed by its established and recorded rules.

That evidences an intention to continue to defy the law and shows absolutely no respect for the Illinois Attorney General. Such an intention indicates the crime of child pornography in the library will continue to go unpunished and unabated. This is a major consequence of a library acting outside the law.


OPPL-BoT Purposefully and Knowingly Defies the Law to Protect the ALA

OPPL-BoT’s defiance of the Illinois Attorney General is purposeful and knowing. It will not back down on its provision of pornography in the library no matter what the consequences because, inter alia, ALA has been holding out OPPL’s successful but lawbreaking tactics as being exemplary. If OPPL is eventually forced to comply with Illinois library law, that will spell disaster for ALA’s efforts to promote porn in public libraries throughout Illinois and nationwide. For an example of porn promotion, teaching new library trustees that libraries must allow Internet porn when the law says the opposite is promoting porn in libraries ( “How State Library Associations Endanger Children; NJ Libraries and You: Not Perfect Together” http://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2013/08/LibraryAssociations.html ). ALA has for two years in a row now been found to be one of the nation’s leading facilitatators of porn (“ALA Listed as Top Facilitator of Porn in America and a Leading Contributor to Sexual Exploitation of Women” http://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2013/03/DirtyDozenALA.html ). Even now there is Illinois library filtering legislation SB2784 that ALA opposes, and OPPL following library law and filtering the Internet would be disastrous to efforts to oppose such legislation. I say this not to promote my view but to illustrate how strongly OPPL-BoT will resist Attorney General determinations, as if that is not already becoming evident from OPPL-BoT’s own actions. And I’m not the only one saying this. Consider Jim Kraft at the Edgar County Watchdogs ( http://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/2014/05/whats-next-with-the-orland-park-public-library-child-porn-scandal/ ):

Behind the scenes, the real power play at issue here is that the American Library Association cannot afford to allow a plum like the OPPL to shut off the child porn access, since the ALA is based in Chicago and fears losing control of another public facility. Currently, the ALA in effect controls the OPPL, via the OPPL’s Director Mary Weimar (who is a committed acolyte of the ALA). If the OPPL Board of Trustees voted against the ALA and stopped allowing itself to be an access point to child pornography this would be a clear repudiation of the ALA’s “guidelines” for libraries…and would diminish the ALA’s clout.

The fear in the ALA’s offices is that if the OPPL votes to block the child porn then other libraries in Chicago could follow…and if that happens then the ALA’s entire house of cards could tumble.

This is why every effort imaginable is now being undertaken by the OPPL’s Board of Trustees to violate the OMA and FOIA in our State to thwart the public’s demand that child porn be permanently blocked in this Library.


Not Even the Appearance of Compliance with the Attorney General is Present

OPPL-BoT has shown absolutely no interest in ever giving even the appearance of compliance with Attorney General letters of determination and OMA. For example it used policy passed at the illegal 12 February meeting that the Attorney General found to be void ab initio to continue to silence me as it had in the past–even though it already knew that meeting was illegal, the policy was invalid, there was no required public recital at the next meeting, and the library’s attorney is supposedly an expert on sunshine laws.


A Third Library Patron Speaks Up for My Free Speech But OPPL-BoT Turns a Deaf Ear

At least one other person besides Kevin DuJan and Megan Fox also commented at the recent OPPL-BoT meeting how it was wrong for the library board to refuse to allow me to speak. He said: “However, rather than compromise, this elected board, with help from the ALA, has turned a deaf ear to the public, and instead taken it upon themselves to initiate inept activities to undermine its critics. You lied to the media. You stonewalled FOIA requests. You filed baseless complaints with the police. You arbitrarily moved public board meetings and changed rules just to avoid criticism. I ask why you wouldn’t allow that man who wanted to Skype in today, hear what he has to say? What is wrong with a free and open exchange of ideas here?”


Request for Review of Government Censorship and Law Defiance

So I request this latest denial of my free speech, what amounts to government censorship, be reviewed as yet another instance in a continuing string of illegality and OMA violations by OPPL-BoT. I also look forward to a decision on my first Request for Review for the first time the library violated the law regarding my public comment in December.

It would be worthwhile to consider at the same time whether the new policy language, were it to be properly effectuated, would also represent a violation of OMA. I understand that since the policy is not yet legally in effect, the issue might not be ripe for review. Nevertheless, OPPL-BoT acts as if the policy is in effect, and it will certainly place it into effect eventually, so that may make it valuable to make it clear to OPPL-BoT that such a policy of blocking electronic participation would violate OMA.


The Village of Orland Park Has the Right and Duty to Step In or It May Face Liability

Now that the library is acting outside the law, the Village of Orland Park has every right and duty to step in and require the library to follow the law that created the library and the board. It can do this without piercing the veil of autonomy that allows the library to act freely to carry out the purposes of that law. Where the library steps outside that law, the local government must act. The local government has the power to remove library trustees who have broken the law. The law has been broken. Given how the library ignores Attorney General admonitions and continues to defy the law with alacrity, it is my opinion that removing such library trustees is likely the best means of restoring respect for the law to the library board. If the local government does not move to stop the library board from acting in defiance of the law, it condones such illegality and risks serious liability, at a minimum. If it needs notice of potential harm, consider this to be that notice.


ALA Targeting Me By Name May Be Why OPPL-BoT Repeatedly Silences Me

A significant fact has come to light regarding these violations as it tends to show an intention to violate OMA at the time the crimes were committed and likely a continuing motivation to violate the law. Basically, ALA targeted me by name when setting up library training in which it featured OPPL personnel. If I were present, it would have to tone down its message to librarians–that’s basically what ALA wrote. As it turned out, I was not present, and if I heard correctly, ALA trained librarians how to thwart the law by destroying evidence otherwise available via FOIA requests. No wonder ALA didn’t want me to be present and OPPL-BoT silences me despite the law. And I’ll bet there’s more where that came from. More FOIA’s are being filed but the level of compliance is near ALA perfection, namely, few things of major significance has been supplied so far and the rest is likely destroyed, per ALA diktat, but in violation of state criminal law.

On 7 November 2013, ALA sent an email asking if I would be present at its librarian training featuring OPPL personnel because, if so, it would have to change its message: “IF Dan Kleinman or some of our detractors attend, we will need to change our content.” See the full email published at “Illinois Attorney General Update Evidencing Orland Park Public Library's Defiance of the Open Meetings Act; Arrests Possible” ( http://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2014/05/NewEvidence.html ).

Now I know why OPPL-BoT has written policy expressly to deny my public comment. I was targeted by the ALA over a month before I had attempted to speak at any OPPL-BoT meeting. So now I’m targeted by OPPL-BoT for silence. The targeting is evidenced by, among other things, a refusal to follow policy that allows my public comment, the drafting of new policy that specifically targets me, the supposed adoption of the policy during an illegal meeting held during a holiday, and the overbreadth of the policy such that it may violate ADA as well as OMA. As a result my public comment has been suppressed again and again in violation of OMA and is likely to continue to be suppressed without intervention from the Attorney General. And even then, OPPL-BoT has shown no proclivity to follow the Attorney General’s determinations/opinions.


Attorney General Intervention is Needed to Stop the Lawbreaking

Given this, Attorney General intervention is needed to begin to stop OPPL from violating the law. OPPL-BoT has demonstrated that mere warnings are not enough of a remedy to stop a recalcitrant library board from breaking the law to defend its various lawbreaking activities, including aiding and abetting child pornography by, among other means, failure to report such crime to the police and destroying evidence. Therefore, I respectfully request the Attorney General review my request and take action to stop the repeated criminal activity.


Thank You

Thank for for reviewing my request regarding OPPL-BoT violating OMA yet again. I look forward to a response at your earliest convenience, but OPPL-BoT shows no sign of slowing its crime spree on its own, so I hope to have resolution as soon as possible.

Respectfully submitted,

/s/

Dan Kleinman, Library Watchdog
SafeLibraries
[address/phone elided]
http://tinyurl.com/AboutDan



The above was submitted today, sans the graphics and captions.

More about this very incident of OPPL-BoT committing another Class C Misdemeanor crime by censoring me, besides what's provided by Kevin DuJan (link) and Megan Fox (link) as discussed above, is available here:


NOTE ADDED 10 JUNE 2014:

THE ILLINOIS ATTORNEY GENERAL HAS LAUNCHED INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE ABOVE MATTER:




On Twitter:  @ChiPubLib @ECWDogs @HillBuzz @ILAttyGeneral @IllLibraryAssoc @IML_Legislative @IntolerantFox @OIF @OrlandPkLibrary @Skype @VillageOrlandPk