I am writing today to alert you to a problematic bill, HB 3796, that was only introduced last Friday afternoon, passed the House on Memorial Day, and will pass the Senate TODAY to the Senate sponsors, who expect a unanimous vote.  I am providing detailed information below. It is urgent that you CALL YOUR SENATOR IN SPRINGFIELD TODAY to tell them you oppose HB3796 as this bill severely curbs the ability of the public to monitor government activity. Need to know who your Senator is? Click here.

HB 3796 adds provisions to the Freedom of Information Act to create a category of requests called "Voluminous Requests."  This is in addition to the other provisions in the FOIA that enable public bodies to negotiate FOIA requests, which are the recurrent requester provision and the unduly burdensome provision.
The voluminous request provisions:

• May be utilized by the public body if more than 5 individual requests for more than 5 different categories of records, or a combination of requests asking for public records from 5 different categories in a 20-day period;
• Extend the timeline by which the public body must correspond with the requester;
• May result in the public body calling the (amended) voluminous request as "unduly burdensome" anyhow (NB: why not just use the unduly burdensome provision from the get-go?)
• Contradict the FOIA provision that allows requesters to INSPECT original documents (an issue decided by an Illinois appellate court in DesPain vs. City of Collinsville), because the bill allows the public body to point to postings of records or information on its website as a sufficient response to the FOIA request--WITHOUT certifying that the online copy is a "true and accurate" copy of the original. 

Requesters routinely ask for documents from more than 5 categories in monitoring government activity.  For example, for a zoning hearing on a proposed permit, a requester might want documents from the:

• Zoning Commission
• Development, Planning & Zoning Committee 
• Finance Department
• Economic Development Commission
• Public Affairs & Safety Committee
  
• Tax Increment Finance Joint Review Board
• correspondence between elected officials and staff on the matter at hand and
• minutes of regular board meetings (that, contrary to the law, may not be posted online).

It is important to note that the FOIA is "Intent-Neutral"--the reason that the requester wants public records is not a consideration that the public body should make in complying with the request.  A document evidencing government business is presumed to be public-- or it may through clear and convincing evidence be withheld through an exception, or an exemption outside the FOIA statute may exist.  These are the only considerations that a public body may take in responding to a FOIA request. 

It should be noted that the unduly burdensome provision is a workable provision--it requires the public body to ask the requester to narrow the request to manageable proportions. 

This bill is partly in reaction to those FOIA requesters who avoided the label of "recurrent requester" by putting their FOIA requests in one letter or email to the public body--an unintended consequence of the recurrent requester provision.  If you remember, a recurrent requester submits 7 FOIA requests in 7 days, 15 FOIA requests in 30 days, or 50 FOIA requests in 365 days.  At the very least, the recurrent requester provision should be removed from the FOIA, if the voluminous request provisions pass and get signed into law. 

While non-profits, scientific, or academic organizations, and the media are exempt from the voluminous request provisions, this bill severely curbs the ability of the public to monitor government activity. 

Thank you,

Maryam Judar
Executive Director/Community Lawyer
Citizen Advocacy Center

Projects include but are not limited to:  

Legal Research

• Citizen Participation Act Memo referencing updated Illinois Supreme Court and Appellate Court cases
• DuPage County Ethics Ordinance: Are public bodies availing themselves of the DuPage County Ethics Commission?
• Research consolidation of the township assessor's function to become a county function in Lake County citing successful consolidation efforts such as the ACT (Accountability, Consolidation, Transparency) Initiative in DuPage County.
• Fair Housing Ethics Complaint regarding systemic and discriminatory practices and problems surrounding Section 8 housing.
• What is the process of modifying the size of a city council (either to increase or decrease the number of board members)?

Government Surveys

• Confirm that DuPage County elected officials filed the required Statement of Economic Interest.
• Survey municipalities regarding ‘fire wireless’ maintenance costs to businesses.
• (The cost of automatic alert to local fire department.)  
• Comparison of library budgets to establish a rough baseline or “norms” across the state and then check for outliers and inconsistencies. (This is a continuation of a project started in the summer of 2013).
• Minorities in government positions in Dupage County (data requested by the DuPage NAACP

Projects

• Public Access Counselor (PAC) Determination Letter Project - In reviewing complaints of violations of FOIA and OMA, the Public Access Counselor issues written decisions, the majority of which are not published on the Illinois Attorney General website. Thanks to cooperation of the Public Access Counselor, CAC is cataloging these decisions and making them available to the public in conjunction with the Chicago Headline Club., with generous support from the McCormick Foundation.

• Guides for Electoral Boards - Creating brochures for active citizens who face a referendum or electoral board challenge. These brochures will cover how to write and format a referendum question, common challenges to referendum questions and electoral board hearings and more. Once written, these standards can be used to make recommendations to legislators in Springfield regarding changes in the election code.
• Updating Citizen Guides - CAC is currently seeking funding for this project.  CAC currently has close to 60 different Citizen Guides, one-quarter of which are posted on the CAC website. Our current goals are to (1) update content to reflect changes in the law since their creation (2) situate the topics in a contemporary context and (3) reformat/redesign for easier public consumption. 

Intakes: Legal Questions, Community Organizing and Government Monitoring Assistance Requested from Citizens
Some current places CAC is working:

• Elmhurst
• Lyndon
• Park Ridge
• Plainfield
• Schiller Park
• Villa Park
• Whoever else contacts us in person, via email, or by phone!

IL House Human Service Committee Chair Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston) has introduced a state policy proposal urging Gov. Quinn to support community-based strategies to help reduce hunger and poverty. The resolution builds on principles established through the IL Local Food Farms and Jobs Act of 2009 to promote grassroots democracy and Main Street economies.

For more details read  Evanston's State Rep.Gabel seeks a resolution for coordinated food strategy published in the Evanston Review 5/13/14 OR this Daily Northwestern report on 5/20/14.