Why there you are…what are you doing hiding over there?

Picking up where I left off with the start of The Mystery of the Missing Midlothian Municipal Code, the scenery for this scene is inside of Village Hall.  Picture the front office and the people who work behind the shielded counter at the desks.   There are at least 3 people who consistently man the front office operations, with the chance of more being able to walk in and out of the scene.

In previous scenes, you can see me walking into Village Hall and asking for the Village Code book it its entirety.  The first few times through, the standard shut down response from behind the desk was basically “You can’t see the book unless you call first, make an appointment and then have an employee of the Village sit with you while you review the book.”

Now, the key equation to this mystery is that codified statement “…shall at all times be on file and available for inspection.”  This makes reference to the promise that 3 copies of the book would be available for inspection at all times at Village Hall.  Nowhere does it say that I must have an employee of the Village reading what rules I wish to read, nor is it acceptable or appropriate to have such a potentially intimidating and chilling action imposed upon a citizen wanting to review the laws they are being asked to follow.

So each time a Village employee prohibited me from even touching the book, let alone inspecting them upon demand, the employee was in clear violation of their own rules and the individual(s) should have been reprimanded for such actions.  But alas, part of this mystery is the lack of knowledge of what really made Midlothian tick with Midlo Murawski at the helm, so there is no way of knowing if there is any penalties in place for such daring and bold direct violations by employees.

Now this pattern of behavior was repeated a few times back in 2008 and unfortunately, weather inhibited my ability to freely travel to Village Hall.   So with a Spring Cleaning spirit, I picked up on this project last week and decided once again to try a face-to-face visit to see if anything had changed.

Well…things had changed…kinda, sorta.  This time when I asked for the book, there seemed to be willingness to relinquish the book into my possession but with the following verification…

NOT ONE VILLAGE ORDINANCE FOR 2008 OR 2009 IS IN THE BOOK AT ALL!

Inspired by a major news story series by the Chicago Tribune entitled “Weak laws let officials stonewall citizens” the previous Sunday, I returned home full of excitement and inspiration and proceeded to design my own FOIA requests (complete with color and everything!).  Tickled by the possibility that a simple FOIA request could break down this wall once and for all, I headed back to Village Hall the next day, armed with copies of the requests for all parties of interest.

Now part of The Political Stonewalling Play Book is the idea that since the politicians hold all of the power, if they simply wait out the complaint, then they won’t have to face the true music of the circumstance and perhaps face some type of penalty.  Filing a Freedom Of Information Act request offers up a document trail of efforts to review public document, which in this case, is my continued request for all copies of all ordinances from 2005 through 2009.

In theory, this actually is a stroke of brilliant sunshine in this game of government transparancy.

In theory, all previous failures to copy the ordinance would be cured in one fell swoop with this request.

In theory, there should never, ever, ever, ever be a need to file a Freedom of Information Act form to see an ordinance.

In reality, I submitted my FOIA requests on May 5th to Village Hall, one for the ordinances and one covering the issue of whether or not we have paid out any monies at all for codifying or codifying-related services.

Blank copy of actual FOIA request submitted requesting proof, if any, of any monies paid by the Village to Sterling Codifiers or any other vendor for codifying-related services

Blank copy of actual FOIA submitted May 5, 2009 for copies of all ordinances between 2005 and 2009

Now let’s get back to The Political Stonewalling Playbook and this particular mystery.  Even more preferrable than just waiting out a dissenting view is when a dissenter provides the politician some sort of opening to use what resources are available to them to not necessarily shut down the dissenter so much as turning the dissenter into The Main Villian while spinning the illusion that the politician is The Main Hero.

I was feeling quite empowered after leaving the FOIA requests behind and with the stopwatch ticking downward towards the deadline day, I felt it was time to settle in for the rest of this long haul and that there was nothing more I could do to uncover what laws are missing from the Code Book.  Unfortunately, no matter how “settled” I tried to persuade myself to feel, something was still nagging…something else needed to happen and it took me until Saturday to get it finished.

So here’s another piece to this puzzle:

On this bulleting board hangs a set of ordinances have yet to make it into our Municipal Code book

The following documents are hanging on this board:

Ordinance No. 1630 – An Ordinance Authorizing the Execution of the IMLRMA Minimum/Maximum Contribution Agreement (October 25, 2006)

Ordinance No. 1637 – Regulating Parking (February 14, 2007)

Ordinance No. 1638 – Regulating Encroachment On Public Right Of Way In the Village of Midlothian, Cook County, Illinois (February 15, 2007)

Ordinance No. 1639 – Restricting Discharge Of Sanitary and Industrial Waste In Storm Sewers (February 14, 2007)

Ordinance No. 1642 – Establishing Smoke Alarm Detectors and Carbon Monoxide Detectors in Residential Dwellings (April 11, 2007)

Ordinance No. 1647 – Authorizing the Issuance of General Obligation Bonds (alternate revenue source) In An Aggregate Principal Amount Not To Exceed $2,750,000. (July 25, 2007)

Resolution No. 07-0613 – An Act regulating wages of laborers, mechanics and other workers employed in any public works by the State, county, city or any public body or any political subdivision or by anyone under contract for public “works” approved June 26, 1941, codified as amended, 820 ILCS 130/1 et. seq. (1993) formerly Ill. Rev. Statutes, Chapter 48, Par. 39s-1 et. seq.

WOW!  Cool!  Score one for the Village!  At least a few of the ordinances have been located in Village hall!  Now take away a few points for NOT ONE VILLAGE EMPLOYEE WHO OVERHEARD EVERY SINGLE CONVERSATION I HAVE EVER HAD never making statement that these documents were hanging on the board, and apparantly for quite a while.  (see Bulletin Board Broadcasting Bias Benefits No One for more information about the state of our bulletin board)

So, back to the question of what actually is causing all of this turmoil when it comes to seeing the Midlothian Municipal Code Book in its entirety.  Although the employees have certainly been creating interference, it is highly unlikely they are the ones intentionally sabotaging the maintenance of the Village Code book.  But then, who is responsible for instructing them on how to deal with requests to see our Village Code?

In my first post, I discussed the responsibilities of the Village Clerk and showed how the ordinances can easily leave a reader with the impression that the buck stops with the Village Clerk and that’s the end of that.  In this post, I cover the participatory efforts of the backbone of the day to day operations here in the Village, but what about the role of the Village Lawyer in all of this?  And why hasn’t there been any duplication of the ordinances hanging on the walls?  Also, there were various officials present during some of my requests and I’ve even left voice mail messages.  Why didn’t/doesn’t anyone at all feel any sense of urgency to correct this problem, especially the Village Lawyer?  Is there some sort of super-duper secret law that gives the Village permission and authority to stonewall so blatantly, the Village of Midlothian has no concern whatsoever about being held accountable in any way beyond what was mentioned in the Chicago Tribune article linked above…of which the basic idea is that above and beyond shaming politicians into compliance and then dealing with the fallout from such an act?

So all in all, 6 previously unseen ordinances have been discovered hanging around Village Hall for quite some time over this past week, but unfortunately it seems that only more questions are destined to become a part of The Mystery of the Missing Midlothian Municipal Code…