Over the last few months, there has been a lot of excitement surrounding turnpike agencies throughout the country. The Maine Turnpike Authority is
undergoing reform in the wake of a major scandal over
freewheeling gift card distribution and general extravagance. The Ohio turnpike, which is being eyeballed for a
potential lease by Gov. Kasich, has been in the papers for disproportionately
high salaries,well above those of the DOT. And,
Peter Samuel reports that early indications have surfaced that there may have been some questionable contracts granted (or NOT granted, it's not clear) for tolling facilities by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey recently. Still, Penn Turnpike officials seem to be competing for the status of most likely to be in hot water. Agency officials
have hired outside consultants to scrutinize the agency's "top brass." Despite this declaration of openness, they are nevertheless in
court fighting off a journalist's attempt to secure access to its EZ-pass records.The Pennsylvania story really strikes a chord for me right now, because I am in the midst of a battle over Chicago Skyway records. I submitted a FOIA to several departments of the city of Chicago for Skyway records from the 1990s. Yes, go ahead, LAUGH! So far, I have been met with nothing but delay and denial. Each of Chicago's departments is treated as a separate legal entity under its interpretation of the law. The Department of Streets and Sanitation sent me nothing but a terse we "do not have any records that are responsive to your FOIA request." Rosa Calderon, the FOIA officer for Streets and Sanitation, ignored multiple further queries and requests for help or information on record keeping procedures. Very unfriendly. The representative in the city clerk's office didn't even bother to get back to me, but to be fair that wasn't a completely formal, legalistic request. The Dept. of Finance representative, Sandra Collins, has put more effort into warding off my requests, but she told me that she was sure there was a "statute of limitations" on such things. Statue of limitations is revealing language--during that time, Streets and Sanitation was under the leadership of
Al Sanchez, who will be serving time for operating a "sham city hiring scheme" through the department. While I am looking for materials that were designed for general consumption and publication, I am sure no one wants to risk any more skeletons accidentally falling from closets. Really, I just want to fill out a chart that I developed from the annual and monthly Skyway reports, showing traffic and revenue. No big secrets there. But, I am pretty sure the FOIA officers consider it their job to find reasons to deny requests, rather than to assist with research. Not surprising, I suppose.
Whether or not they actually HAVE the reports from that period seems not to concern anyone, even though that's the requirement of the relevant public records law. Actually, I suspect that the official, public reports that I am requesting would be easy to locate. Until 1989, when Sanchez took over, they were regularly sent to a number of regional libraries, including the Harold Washington Library. I submitted a request for review of the request to the Illinois State's Attorney about a week ago, hopefully something will come of it. In the meanwhile, wish me luck!
When I was starting my research on the Golden Gate Bridge, I had to go through a lengthy and confrontational process to get access to their records, despite California's very strong public records act. I discovered that the act was STRENGTHENED in the 1970s SPECIFICALLY because of the intransigence and lack of accountability of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transit District (thank you Bill Bagley). Read the
introduction to my book for more information, and resources for how to pursue these requests. Local governments, especially ones with TOLL REVENUES to protect, seem to be universally secretive and resistant to investigation.
