Village of Lisle Paid $23K In FOIA Lawsuit Settlement –

Lisle, IL. (ECWd) –

Lisle Economic Development Partnership (‘LEDP’), according to Lisle records, refused to give public records to the Village of Lisle, which caused the village to violate the Freedom of Information Act.

From the settlement agreement:

In July and September 2021, Mr. Christopher Bielat submitted Freedom of Information Act (‘FOIA’) requests to the Village of Lisle for records relating to the Lisle Economic Development Partnership (‘LEDP’). The Village, in a full faith effort to comply with FOIA, on multiple occasions, requested copies of responsive records from the LEDP. The requests were denied. As a result, the Village was unable to fulfill the requests for records not within the Village’s possession.

Subsequent to submitting these FOIA requests, on October 8, 2021, Mr. Bielat filed a complaint in the 18th Judicial Circuit Court of DuPage County for an injunction and declaratory relief under the provisions of the State’s FOIA. The Village has later received the LEDP records and provided them to Mr. Bielat in order to fulfill his records request(s).

The proposed Agreement included the following terms:

• Ongoing compliance related to FOIA and OMA for the Village, its subsidiary or other affiliated public bodies
• Payment of Mr. Bielat’s attorney fees and costs in the amount of $23,000 within 7 days of the Agreement effective date
• Acknowledgment and agreement that the Village has met its obligation to respond to FOIA requests submitted in July and September 2021
• Village to audit LEDP financials as part of the annual audit process
• Dismissal of the lawsuit within 7 days of the Agreement’s effective date