PEORIA, IL -- Which is worse, the Peoria County States Attorney office or the Illinois Attorney General's office? You decide.
The Peoria SA's office lied about my Freedom of Information request. The IL AG's office took 9 month to respond to my request for a review, which revealed the lie, but too late to do anything about it.
In May 2020 I filed a FOIA request to Peoria County for information on the proposed 'sale' of Heddington Oaks, the lovely new county nursing home. The response was that the information was exempt because of attorney-client privilege. I protested to the IL. AG's office that there must be something there, minutes of meetings, for example, on this issue. Then nothing.
The 'sale' /aka 'closure' went on the ballot and voters approved it, alas. So they will be paying the bonds for a now empty building, and higher rates for nursing homes in the Peoria area. Stupid.
Now, 9 months later, the IL AG sent a response, including the letter dated Feb. 2, 2021, in which the Peoria AG office admits they lied, and instead have no information on the proposed 'sale,' but that the 'closure' of the nursing home had been discussed.
The name of the nursing home is also misspelled throughout the letter.
The Peoria SA office could have emailed me to say they had something on the closure but they didn't. That SA won't be getting my vote next time, in 2022.
The IL AG office could have pushed for an explanation but didn't, so a Republican needs to run for that office next time (2022).
Disgusting. And I still don't have any documents, which could have been ditched by now. The FOIA has become a joke.
-- Elaine Hopkins