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Former IT director Dorman sues Gibbons over failure to respond to FOIA; Gibbons calls request 'fishing expedition'

MADISON - ST. CLAIR RECORD

Sunday, December 22, 2024

Former IT director Dorman sues Gibbons over failure to respond to FOIA; Gibbons calls request 'fishing expedition'

State Court

Former Madison County IT director Rob Dorman is suing State's Attorney Tom Gibbons for failing to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request related to the county Public Corruption Task Force that had investigated him for allegedly spying on internal emails.

According to the complaint filed Sept. 1, Dorman wants the court to force Gibbons to produce results of a FOIA he filed on July 17 and amended on July 18.

The FOIA asked for emails between Gibbons and the task force, a list of the task force members, Gibbon’s office calendar, a complaint by Lisa Ciampoli, and emails with from the State’s Attorney Office with the words “rent,” “hall," “fundraiser," “fundraising," “campaign," “donation," “raffle,” “prize,” “bet,” or “tournament” from 2006 to 2016, according to Dorman.

He is represented by Richard Bullock of Town Square Legal Advocates, which has an office in Collinsville. Bullock also represents Dorman in a defamation lawsuit he filed last month against Ciampoli, claiming statements she made to investigators were false and ultimately cost him his job.

Ciampoli, a Republican candidate for state representative, responded to the lawsuit saying she will "not be intimidated by a frivolous lawsuit filed by a fired county employee. I will always stand up to bullies in both parties, whether it’s Mr. Dorman or Mike Madigan."

Gibbons provided a response to Dorman's lawsuit to the publication EdGlen Today. It reads: 

“The State’s Attorney’s Office answers hundreds of Freedom of Information Act requests, including countless requests from this individual.

“We take very seriously our responsibility to be transparent to the public because we work for the citizens of Madison County.

“Unfortunately, this is a disgruntled former county employee who is constantly looking to blame anyone but himself for his termination. He currently has multiple pending lawsuits against current or former county officials, and this is just one more.

“Details of the cause of his termination are readily available in voluminous investigative documents released at the insistence of this individual. Ironically, once he caused the details of the investigation to become publicly known to the County Board, he was one of two top administration officials terminated by a vote of 26-1.

“This request was, in part, duplicative of other prior requests that had already been answered and contained such generic terms that would have required a full legal review of over 750,000 emails going back years before the State’s Attorney was even in the office - none of which contain any use of pubic email by the State’s Attorney for any political or fundraising purpose. This is simply a fishing expedition by a disgruntled former employee who continues to waste taxpayer money with his frivolous lawsuits and FOIA requests. As with all cases, we will continue to fulfill our legal obligations and respond fully once we have been served with process and will defend the matter vigorously.”

Dorman responded that, "It remains a fact that Gibbons refused to lawfully respond to my freedom of information request.

"The public is waiting for Gibbons to release any email from his office with the word “rent,” “hall,” “fundraiser,” “fundraising,” “campaign,” “donation,” “raffle,” “prize,” “bet,” or “tournament” from 2006 to 2016 which so far he has refused to do."

His lawsuit says that Illinois statute requires a public body to either comply or deny a FOIA request within five business days from receipt of the request unless the time for response is properly extended for another five business days.

"Defendant neither complied nor denied Plaintiff’s request within the statutorily mandated period, nor did it seek an extension under subsection (e)," the complaint states. "It has now been more that a month since Plaintiff submitted his request with no response whatsoever."

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