Discussion Bullet Points from the January 26, 2010 meeting
of the Local Government FOIA Group
After meeting on Tuesday, January 26, the members of the Local Government FOIA Group indentified the following issues as the most important points to address at this time. Please review this list as soon as possible and provide feedback. The Illinois Municipal League will begin drafting language for legislation. The next meeting of the group will be within ten (10) days.
· Address the abuse of commercial requests.
o These costly requests require a modified, more restrictive definition of “commercial purpose.”
o Public bodies should have the complete discretion to respond or deny commercial requests.
· Allow public bodies to ask questions to clarify requests, and begin the 5-day clock after the request is clarified.
· The 5-day response requirement should be tolled whenever a government request for an advisory opinion has been requested of the Public Access Counselor (PAC).
· Create an exemption in the FOIA for the names and identities of minors who participate in park district or municipal recreation agency programs, and consider expanding this exemption to other program participants as well.
· Exempt personnel records from disclosure.
o Exempt performance reviews.
o Exempt employment applications.
o Exempt personnel files.
· Provide that a request is deemed to be unduly burdensome if it costs the public body more than a certain, specified dollar amount to provide the documents.
· Judicial review of a PAC opinion should be heard in the county where the public body is located -- not limited to Cook or Sangamon counties.
· Eliminate the citation of factual basis and a citation to supporting legal authority for a denial. It is too costly to require a legal opinion from a public body each time that it denies a request.
· Review the “clear and convincing” standard for denials and either delete or ask for clarification of this standard.
· Ask the Attorney General’s office to identify all Federal and State statutes or rules and regulations that exempt information and take precedent over Illinois’ FOIA statute, and place those, along with binding opinions, on the AG’s website.
· Allow the public body to decide the most cost-effective medium for providing records, and not allow the requester to determine the format.
· Require de novo judicial review of binding PAC opinions. This means to start with a new record being established in the circuit court rather than being constrained to the PAC record created during the Administrative Review process.