On
August 17, 2009 a comprehensive rewrite of the Illinois Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA) 5 ILCS 140/1 et seq was signed into law. The General Assembly declares
that providing records in compliance with the requirements of this Act is a primary
duty of public bodies to the people of the State. However, this Act is not intended
to cause an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, nor to allow the requests
of a commercial enterprise to unduly burden public resources, or to disrupt the
duly-undertaken work of any public body independent of the fulfillment of any
of the fore-mentioned rights of the people to access information. The amended
statute retains the prefatory statement that it does not oblige public bodies
to maintain or prepare any record that was not maintained or prepared before the
FOIA took effect. In other words, the public body need not create a record in
order to satisfy a request for public information. All FOIA requests
made for commercial purposes shall be submitted in writing on the Village's standard
FOIA request form and shall disclose that the request is being made for a commercial
purpose. It is a violation of the FOIA for a person to knowingly obtain a public
record for a commercial purpose without disclosing
that it is for a commercial
purpose. The Village shall respond to a request for records to be used for a commercial
purpose within 21 business days after receipt. All other written requests shall
be responded to within 5 business days. There is no fee for the duplication of
the first fifty 8 ½ x 11 black and white copies.
Freedom of Information
Request Form
Freedom
of Information Administrative Procedures
Building and Demolition Permit reports can be found here |
