Anna newspaper fights SIU over public access

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois University wants a state appellate court to block public access to taxpayer-funded employment contracts of the system's president and other officials, citing privacy concerns.

Lawyers for the university system asked a Springfield appeals court Wednesday to block the Anna Gazette-Democrat from accessing the contracts of SIU president Glenn Poshard and other school officials.

Advocates of public access believe that if the Springfield court upholds a lower court's ruling siding with SIU last year, it would weaken the 23-year-old Illinois Freedom of Information Act requiring disclosure of most documents produced by state and local agencies.

"It could be truly devastating to the public's right to know how and under what terms people are employed by every form of public entity in the state of Illinois," said Charles Davis, executive director of the Missouri-based National Freedom of Information Coalition.

Jerry Blakemore, the school's general counsel, told the Chicago Tribune for a story Thursday that the school's position carefully balances its desire for transparency with its need to protect employee privacy. Staff contracts can contain sensitive personal details, including medical information or Social Security numbers, and should be exempt from disclosure, he said.

The publisher of the Gazette-Democrat, Jerry Reppert, said personal details included in a contract make public access to the contract more pressing, however.

"I believe the public has a right to know the entirety of the contract," Reppert said. "If something is so serious that it got included in the employment contract, it deserves public scrutiny."

Reppert said SIU readily denies FOIA requests as standard procedure and perhaps thought he would give up after being denied access. "I have no intention of backing off this issue," Reppert said. "We need to clear this up and make it easier for the public to access information."

The Peoria appellate court decision that SIU and Chicago State have cited as precedent for denying access to the employee contracts only deals with pre-employment contracts, according to Reppert.

The school routinely releases details about pay and benefits contained in employee contracts, diminishing the need to make the documents themselves public, Blakemore said. The school already has announced that Poshard earns $300,524 a year and gets a housing allowance, pension and benefits worth $84,481 annually.

But Davis said special stipulations, agreements and auxiliary payments that can affect taxpayers often are tucked into employee contracts. "Even if there's not a whiff of corruption in the contract, it makes people wonder," Davis said. "We're talking about Illinois here."

Dave Gross, spokesman for the president's office, dismissed Davis' claims of hidden payments. "Every penny the university spends is reviewed by the auditor general," Gross said. "I would refer anyone seeking information about taxpayer-funded contracts to those audits."

Gross said his office is awaiting a clear interpretation of the law in the Anna paper's appeals case. Gross said the decision should arrive in two to three months.

Staff writer Peter Wylie contributed to this report.