In our continuation of the coverage of Audit Them’s on-going compliance tour of obscure towns in Illinois, we focus on the small down of Peotone, Illinois, which recently was compliance checked by the strange YouTuber.
As always, Audit Them represents himself and no one else. His checklists are his own and hold no power or authority over anyone. While he is armed with actual state statutes, he doesn’t have the power to enforce those statutes, and his “reports” may or may not be sent to the Attorney General of the State of Illinois. No one is sure what he actually does with them.
Again, today’s target was the sleepy town of Peotone, Illinois, located 43 miles South of Chicago with a population of around 5,000 citizens. Audit Them wandered into the town hall and was immediately greeted by Kelly LaMore, the Park Manager.
Upon entry to the building, he noted that the “board and commission” was listed on the front window, but he indicated that he needed to get his standard list of information from LaMore, including the “total amount of operating budget,” total number of full and part time employees and block diagram.
LaMore attempted to direct him to the FOIA officer, Jacklyn Van Overmeiren, who was not present at time, but Audit Them pointed out that the state statute said that the information would be made available “immediately.” He then said that he would give her “a few seconds” to gather the information.
Startled, LaMore wrote down the information Audit Them was seeking, then asked what agency or group he represented. Audit Them answered in his usual manner, stating, “today I’m just acting as a regular member of the public… today.”
Inquiries to get his name and contact information, resulted in him giving the name “George” and a copy of his e-mail. He again insisted that “today” he was just a member of the public, and asked LaMore if it was great that someone came and checked if they were in compliance with the statutes. LaMore agreed, but said she didn’t like his tactics.
LaMore then took a photo of Audit Them with her camera, resulting in Audit Them asking for a FOIA request form. He told LaMore that she was required not to delete the photo of him as now he was going to FOIA request a copy of that photo.
Eventually, Audit Them asked if LaMore would be able to provide his requested information within the next five minutes. She said she would not be able to do so. He said he would be giving the office a failing grade on his checklist and would be back in 30 days to check their compliance with statute.
The YouTuber ended the video by noticing that the fire extinguisher was out of date before walking out of the building and shambling back to his car.
