Secret report paid for with taxpayer dollars still secret

I had a headache all week. It could have been the weather. Could have been excessive caffeine. Or it could have been 5 ILCS 430 and 5 ILCS 140.

These are the Illinois laws cited as reasons for keeping the public and yours truly from viewing a copy of an Aug. 27, 2007 report about subleases at the seven tollway oases by the Illinois executive inspector general.

Before you hit the snooze button, this could be a good read. After all, the tollway's top lawyer said in a March 2008 e-mail that the report "does not find any actual wrongdoing, but concludes that there is an appearance of impropriety." Talk about a tease.

Subleases at the oases have a spicy past. The leases were the subject of an investigation by federal prosecutors in 2005 for suspiciously low rents offered to oases fast-food vendors with political connections. The vendors along with the tollway's former oases manager, Wilton Partners, were big contributors to ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, now facing federal corruption charges, which he denies.

The report also apparently criticizes the public-private partnership model at the oases.

So of course, I want to read this thriller, but it's secret. Freedom of Information Act requests were denied by the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority and the Office of the Executive Inspector General.

The reason given was that records and reports of the Office of the Executive Inspector General are confidential and can't be FOI'd, according to Illinois law.

What is the Office of the Executive Inspector General? Well, they root out corruption and investigate fraud in government agencies. But apparently you and I can't see any of their findings because it's a secret.

Coincidentally, current Executive Inspector General James Wright is no stranger to the tollway. He served from fall 2003 to summer 2005 as tollway inspector general until Blagojevich appointed him to his current post.

Tollway officials now say they have no objection to releasing the report and have asked the OEIG to lighten up. "If these legal constraints can somehow be overcome, we remain willing and ready to release the report," a tollway official has stated.

Great. Now I can get this report. But wait - that cuts no ice with the OEIG. "Executive Inspector General reports are exempt from disclosure," an OEIG attorney wrote me.

But wait - the General Assembly revised the ethics law in 2009 so that another little-known agency, the Executive Ethics Commission, is empowered to release OEIG reports when it wants to. Hurray!

But wait - it turns out the legislation that went into effect recently isn't retroactive. In other words, no report - yet.

State Sen. Susan Garrett who convened hearings to review the oases situation and foreclosure proceedings against Wilton by its lender also FOI'd the report and was denied. She got her hands on it last week after Senate legal staff issued a subpoena. But wait - Garrett can't release the report because it's confidential. The Lake Forest Democrat says it's time to tweak the law to eliminate the grandfather clause.

In the meantime, I've got a headache.

Flotsam and jetsambull; Metra has opened new parking lots at stations in Elburn and at Pingree Road in Crystal Lake. And, the agency will open up ticket sales to credit card users at Union Station and the Ogilvie Transportation Center Monday.bull; Celebrate Winter Bike to Work Day with free cheesecake and coffee 6:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. Wednesday at the Active Transportation Alliance, 9 W. Hubbard St., Chicago.bull; IDOT meets from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday about its multiyear transportation program at 201 W. Center Court, Schaumburg.bull; United Airlines Mileage Plus members can donate miles to get aid workers to earthquake-ravaged Haiti. For information, check out United.com.