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Freedom of Information Act

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, beginning the day following receipt of the request. 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 Permit and Demolition Activity reports can be found here.