HB0152 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB094 03701 JAM 33706 b

94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2005 and 2006
HB0152

Introduced 1/11/2005, by Rep. Paul D. Froehlich - Barbara Flynn Currie - Julie Hamos - Karen May

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

5 ILCS 140/3

from Ch. 116, par. 203

Amends the Freedom of Information Act. Provides that an officer or employee of a public body that purposely stalls the processing of a request under the Act by asserting in bad faith one or more of the Act's reasons for delaying such processing is guilty of a petty offense subject to a $1,000 fine.

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning government.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Freedom of Information Act is amended by changing Section 3 as follows:

(5 ILCS 140/3) (from Ch. 116, par. 203)

Sec. 3. (a) Each public body shall make available to any person for inspection or copying all public records, except as otherwise provided in Section 7 of this Act. Notwithstanding any other law, a public body may not grant to any person or entity, whether by contract, license, or otherwise, the exclusive right to access and disseminate any public record as defined in this Act.

(b) Subject to the fee provisions of Section 6 of this Act, each public body shall promptly provide, to any person who submits a written request, a copy of any public record required to be disclosed by subsection (a) of this Section and shall certify such copy if so requested.

(c) Each public body shall, promptly, either comply with or deny a written request for public records within 7 working days after its receipt. Denial shall be by letter as provided in Section 9 of this Act. Failure to respond to a written request within 7 working days after its receipt shall be considered a denial of the request.

(d) The time limits prescribed in paragraph (c) of this Section may be extended in each case for not more than 7 additional working days for any of the following reasons:

(i) the requested records are stored in whole or in part at other locations than the office having charge of the requested records;

(ii) the request requires the collection of a substantial number of specified records;

(iii) the request is couched in categorical terms and requires an extensive search for the records responsive to it;

(iv) the requested records have not been located in the course of routine search and additional efforts are being made to locate them;

(v) the requested records require examination and evaluation by personnel having the necessary competence and discretion to determine if they are exempt from disclosure under Section 7 of this Act or should be revealed only with appropriate deletions;

(vi) the request for records cannot be complied with by the public body within the time limits prescribed by paragraph (c) of this Section without unduly burdening or interfering with the operations of the public body;

(vii) there is a need for consultation, which shall be conducted with all practicable speed, with another public body or among two or more components of a public body having a substantial interest in the determination or in the subject matter of the request.

(e) When additional time is required for any of the above reasons, the public body shall notify by letter the person making the written request within the time limits specified by paragraph (c) of this Section of the reasons for the delay and the date by which the records will be made available or denial will be forthcoming. In no instance, may the delay in processing last longer than 7 working days. A failure to render a decision within 7 working days shall be considered a denial of the request. An officer or employee of a public body who purposely stalls the processing of a request by asserting in bad faith one or more of the reasons for extension under subsection (d) is guilty of a petty offense subject to a fine of $1,000.

(f) Requests calling for all records falling within a category shall be complied with unless compliance with the request would be unduly burdensome for the complying public body and there is no way to narrow the request and the burden on the public body outweighs the public interest in the information. Before invoking this exemption, the public body shall extend to the person making the request an opportunity to confer with it in an attempt to reduce the request to manageable proportions. If any body responds to a categorical request by stating that compliance would unduly burden its operation and the conditions described above are met, it shall do so in writing, specifying the reasons why it would be unduly burdensome and the extent to which compliance will so burden the operations of the public body. Such a response shall be treated as a denial of the request for information. Repeated requests for the same public records by the same person shall be deemed unduly burdensome under this provision.

(g) Each public body may promulgate rules and regulations in conformity with the provisions of this Section pertaining to the availability of records and procedures to be followed, including:

(i) the times and places where such records will be made available, and

(ii) the persons from whom such records may be obtained.

(Source: P.A. 90-206, eff. 7-25-97.)