Illinois (ECWd) –
The Illinois Local Records Act outlines key transparency obligations for public bodies in the state. Most folks are not familiar with the law because the focus has been on the Freedom of Information Act.
One of the main challenges we have seen with just trying to submit a FOIA request is locating an email address to send it to. Way too many public bodies that have a website are not complying with the obligations outlined in the Local Record Act. One thing we have noticed is that many public bodies are using an online “contact” form that is basically a pop-up form you must fill out and submit. Some have claimed it qualifies as the “mechanism” for members of the public to electronically communicate with elected officials of that unit of government or school district. What many public bodies are ignoring is the last portion of section (a) in that law. The “mechanism” cannot be the method of communication if officials have an individual email address, which we have yet to find a case where they did not. Every public body that has a website and serves a population of less than 1,000,000 is bound by this law.
(50 ILCS 205/20)
Sec. 20. Internet posting requirements.
(a) A unit of local government or school district that serves a population of less than 1,000,000 that maintains an Internet website other than a social media website or social networking website shall, within 90 days of the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 98th General Assembly, post to its website for the current calendar year a mechanism, such as a uniform single email address, for members of the public to electronically communicate with elected officials of that unit of local government or school district, unless such officials have an individual email address for that purpose.
(b) For the purposes of this Section “Internet website” shall not include any social media website, social networking website, or any other social media presence that a unit of local government or school district maintains.
(c) A hyperlink to the information required to be posted under this Section must be easily accessible from the unit of local government’s or school district’s home page.
(d) The postings required by this Section are in addition to any other posting requirements required by law or ordinance.
(e) No home rule unit may adopt posting requirements that are less restrictive than this Section. This Section is a limitation under subsection (i) of Section 6 of Article VII of the Illinois Constitution on the concurrent exercise by home rule units of powers and functions exercised by the State. (Source: P.A. 98-930, eff. 1-1-15.)
Any elected official who has an individual email address is obligated by law to post it on the home page of the website.
If your local government public bodies have a website and are not providing the required information, we urge you to educate them on their obligations so they can correct the failure and make it easier for the public to communicate with their officials, as the law intended. If they refuse to publish their email on the website, please contact us and provide the name of the public body so we can include them in our future transparency failures database.
We also urge everyone to read the entire Local Records Act so that they learn the obligations, limitations, and methods public bodies must use in handling public records. Key provisions related to inspection, retention, and destruction of public records are found in this law. Knowing what the law says about those key issues plays a huge role in holding our local governments accountable. Pay particular to the criminal penalties the law outlines found in section 4(a).
We will update with other transparency obligations found in our State Constitution in a future article.
4 Responses
I probably should spend some time studying this but I’m not in the mood for legalese this morning. The section you quoted said “that maintains an Internet website”. That opens a whole different discussion. What entities have to maintain a website? Isn’t there … I’ll call it an exception for this discussion … for small units of government without full time employees? For instance townships or volunteer fire departments? I seem to recall an exception not requiring volunteer fire departments without full time staff to maintain a website and post minutes.
FOIA requests are a difficulty for townships, fire districts, conservation districts, etc. In many (most?) cases there is no staffed office. If there is an office it’s only used when someone comes in to do needed paperwork. It isn’t they are trying to avoid FOIA requests (although I’m confident most would prefer it), it’s just a staffing matter to get the request and respond in a timely manner.
I think you are misreading the statute. If the local government does NOT have individual email addresses for FOIA requests, then it CAN use a mechanism. The real point is to get the info correct? However, I would certainly argue that the mechanism should have to give a recept that the request was made for time-measuring purposes. The ones I’ve encountered do, and give the request a number of some sort. Good luck get the info you desire.
But the public body cannot “force” the use of the online mechanism to submit FOIA requests – especially when they have email addresses they use for public business. Any FOIA request submitted to any email address of the public body is required to be forwarded to the FOIA officer.
Im all for transparency but reality is.the ppl stealing the money will never pay for.any crimes they are.doing