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Top 10 Reasons the Illinois General Assembly Should Vote NO on HB 3796 

11/17/2014

6 Comments

 
Picture
REASON #10: NO OPPORTUNITY WAS GIVEN FOR PUBLIC CONSUMPTION OR DEBATE.  HB 3796 was introduced the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend, one week before the end of the session.  While Illinoisans were honoring those who have defended democracy as members of our U.S. military, the General Assembly was limiting the public’s right to participate in the democratic process.  HB 3796 affects individuals who monitor government, ad hoc citizen groups who organize to address issues of public concern, average citizens who want to learn more about government, and lawyers who represent individuals or community groups in addressing issues of public concern.

REASON #9: THE INTERNET ACCESS PROVISION CONTRADICTS THE  FOIA PROVISION THAT ALLOWS REQUESTERS THE RIGHT TO INSPECT THE PHYSICAL COPY OF THE RECORD.*  
HB 3796 bypasses the requester’s right to inspect original records by allowing the public body to respond to FOIA by  notifying “the requester that the public record is available online and direct[ing] the requester to the website where the record can be reasonably accessed.” **

REASON #8: 5 ILCS 140/3 (e)(vi) ALREADY ALLOWS GOVERNMENT ENTITIES MORE TIME TO RESPOND TO REQUESTS.  
Public bodies can invoke an additional 5 days if they need more time to respond so that compliance will not unduly burden or interfere with government operation.

REASON #7: 5 ILCS 140/3(g) ALREADY ALLOWS GOVERNMENT ENTITIES A MECHANISM TO MANAGE LARGE REQUESTS.  
The “unduly burdensome” provision allows public bodies to determine that the burden on the public body to produce requested information outweighs public interest in disclosure.  

REASON #6: NO DOCUMENTATION HAS BEEN RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC TO ILLUSTRATE SYSTEMIC ABUSE.  
Public bodies have not documented the perceived problem  this bill allegedly will solve.  Further, FOIA is an “intent neutral” law; no requester has to tell the public body why a record is sought.

REASON #5: VOLUMINOUS REQUEST DESIGNATIONS WILL RESULT IN LESS MEANINGFUL PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT.  
To intelligently address issues of public concern, a routine FOIA request can easily exceed the proposed thresholds.  A routine FOIA to address community development and economic issues would include all  (1) minutes, (2) agendas, (3) all staff communications, (4) applications, (5) financial data, (6)  contracts, (7) consultant reports, (8) comprehensive plan, and (9) attorney billing records for a particular time period.

REASON #4: HB 3796 CREATES THE “HAVES” AND “HAVE NOTS” OF PUBLIC ACCESS.  

The fee scale for electronic data unfairly penalizes Illinoisans with lower incomes and who wish to civically engage, and it will create a class of citizens who have financial means to access them and a class that doesn’t.  


REASON #3: HB 3796 COMPLICATES AND DETERS THE USE OF FOIA BY AVERAGE CITIZENS.  

The provisions for voluminous requests, access to online documents, and electronic data cost provisions have unnecessarily complicated the FOIA so that a lawyer is necessary to untangle the red tape of the procedures for accessing information.  


REASON #2: THE VOLUMINOUS REQUEST PROVISION WORKS IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE RECURRENT REQUESTER PROVISION TO SQUEEZE OUT THE PUBLIC.  
The recurrent requester provision limits how many FOIA requests can be made in a certain time frame.  Voluminous request provisions limit how much can be requested at one time.  A requester is potentially forced to choose: be labeled recurrent or voluminous!  Either road, the end point is the same: less access to public records.

AND THE #1 REASON THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY SHOULD VOTE NO ON HB 3796 is:

HB 3796 LIMITS HOW PUBLIC INFORMATION IS DISTRIBUTED WHILE PLACING NO RESPONSIBILITY ON PUBLIC BODIES TO MAKE MORE INFORMATION AVAILABLE.
Public bodies claim hardship without bearing any responsibility for making more public records available without requiring requests, which would benefit all parties. 


*   5ILCS 3(a); DesPain v. City of Collinsville, 88N.E.2d 163 (2008).
** H.R. 3796 98th Gen. Assemb., Reg. Sess. (Ill. 2014).
6 Comments
Kathy Powers
11/18/2014 03:08:22 pm

This gives public entities far to much power to toss any request for information claiming hardship. Real hardship is living without access to public information

Reply
Midlothian Valerie
11/29/2014 02:42:49 am

This act of the Illinois Congress simply cannot be tolerated in any form. Rather than aiding the citizen in performing their obligation to participate the process, it literally criminalizes the thought of wanting to know what is clearly public information and also violates the Fair Use clause of the copyright laws...even though arguably the copyright of these documents is already owned by the public. Government is simply the librarian of these materials.

With so many headlines being made by government officials throughout the southwest suburbs (and more coming) dealing with scams, cons and other clearly illegal activities, the idea that our Illinois Congress believes existing enforcement agencies will be able to keep our state secure from all of the illegalities coming from MY government is beyond absurd and ludicrous.

This is just another attempt by a State who's credit rating is the worst in the nation to protect those who sunk this State into this predicament and to preserve the current structure so that those who have gained financial benefits from such obstructions of justice in the past can continue to operate as usual.

Illinois government has been historically one of the most secretive governments in the union. Perhaps the current Illinois legislature should go back to school and look at why the state went into bankruptcy back in its earliest years, along with every other point in this state's history when the finances were in complete disrepair and the corresponding results.

This State continues to intentionally drive backwards in the same broken vehicle right at a moment where we need to be gunning the engine on a newly designed vehicle designed just for us.

I say enough is enough.

Reply
Jodie Johnson link
3/18/2022 04:59:46 am

The public record is available online and direct[ing] the requester to the website where the record can be reasonably accessed. Thank you for sharing your great post!

Reply
Fidel Hostetter link
5/27/2022 04:28:40 pm

A routine foia to address community development and economic issues would include all Thank you for taking the time to write a great post!

Reply
Michael Vidales link
5/28/2022 07:17:15 am

I like this one “No documentation has been released to the public to illustrate systemic abuse.”

Reply
Gary Williams link
3/18/2023 11:35:40 am

The fee scale for electronic data unfairly penalizes Illinoisans with lower incomes and who wish to civically engage, Thank you, amazing post!

Reply



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