Editorial: Wood Dale's slow response to our FOIA request on tent collapse
We're told that the City of Wood Dale has an inclement weather evacuation plan that's designed to help protect people from the kinds of powerful storms that swept through town on Aug. 2.
In the wake of the tragedy that took place when that storm struck during Prairie Fest, we asked to see a copy of that plan.
Steven Nincic, a 35-year-old father of two from Wood Dale, was killed and 22 others were injured that Sunday afternoon when the festival tent collapsed under the strong winds that accompanied the storm.
Many of the victims of that collapse apparently had scrambled under the tent, thinking that would shield them from the storm. Whether they had been directed to do so or just moved on their own instincts is at this point unclear.
Our request to see the emergency plan comes as part of our obligation to try to help report to the public what happened. This doesn't constitute some sort of nasty muckraking on our part. We're not out to get anyone.
We just want to see whether the plan was followed. And if it was, are there ways the plan could be improved? And if it wasn't, what needs to be done to ensure that it's followed in the future?
The point is that this information is in the public interest and it might be used to help better prepare the city - and other suburbs, for that matter - so that a tragedy like the one that took place that day might be avoided in the future.
We have no doubt that city officials share our concerns. City Manager Jeff Mermuys was among those who were injured. At least one Wood Dale police officer was too. And Mayor Annunziato Pulice was so involved in the recovery effort after the storm that he ended up being hospitalized with chest pains.
Wood Dale's leaders care. We have no doubt about that.
But we're more than a bit frustrated by how slow they have been to release information that the public deserves to know.
We submitted our Freedom of Information Act request on Aug. 5. Several days have passed, and we have yet to see it, which means we as yet are unable to share it with you.
How can it be so hard to find the plan? What could possibly take so long?
This is a plan designed to guide public safety personnel in an emergency. That's the whole point of it.
If in 10 days no one can put their hands on it to pass it along to a newspaper, how was anyone to have located it in time to respond to a weather emergency?
Wood Dale needs to turn over the plan, and if it should cast the city in less than a perfect light, well then, let the chips fall where they may.
Why? It's a hackneyed phrase, but one that still rings true: The public has a right to know.