« Courts - "Obama's Supreme Court pick may have Chicago link" | Main | Ind. Law - "No law against abortion protest photos: Some residents upset by graphic images on trucks, banners" »

Sunday, May 03, 2009

Law - "Your government in secret: Weak Illinois laws let public officials stonewall citizens looking for information"

The effort this year to put some teeth in the Indiana public records law failed. See this April 8th ILB entry for details.

The Chicago Tribune has been publishing a multi-part examination of the ineffectiveness of the Illinois state laws relating to public access to records. Much of this echos problems also heard in Indiana. Some quotes:

In Illinois, getting a public record is a frustrating labyrinth of excuses, delays and denials.

Public servants have all the tools they need to keep a grip on information that rightly belongs to the people, whether it's a police report, a principal's disciplinary file or a spending plan, a Tribune examination has found.

Since 2005, more than a thousand citizens have filed complaints about public officials in Illinois who refused requests for public records, most often by completely ignoring them.

A review of those complaints, along with dozens of interviews, reveals a culture of secrecy shrouding the machinery of your government. Public meetings are often theater, where votes are pro forma endorsements of decisions forged in e-mails and memos you will never be allowed to see.

Government records routinely turned over at the front counters in many other states are routinely denied here -- the result of a notoriously weak open records law, an unsympathetic political culture and an attitude of disdain among many public servants who consider documents their own. * * *

The state's Freedom of Information Act has more pages devoted to what records you can't get than what you can, from public officials' personnel files to memos in which they express opinions. Critics of the law, including the Chicago Tribune, have called for a complete overhaul to eliminate broad exemptions commonly used by government to deny records.

Proposals to strengthen the law gained some steam at the Statehouse this year after the corruption arrest of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. But they focus less on eliminating loopholes and more on strengthening enforcement of the current law.

One of the most common exemptions is for "preliminary drafts," cited by officials to withhold any number of documents written before government makes a decision -- which is exactly when the records are most needed by those who might question it. * * *

Withholding drafts and other documents used in decision-making may be common practice in Illinois, but it's puzzling to officials from other states.

"Wow, that pretty much encompasses everything government does," said Laurie Beyer-Kropuenske, Minnesota's top public records official. "I don't get it. How is the public supposed to evaluate the performance of its government if all those records are secret?"

The public needs to see drafts more than almost any other document, said Pat Gleason, a cabinet aide and open-records counsel to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist.

"They need to know what a government body did in order to reach a decision, what kind of other ideas did they explore and reject," Gleason said. "All those records are public in Florida, and it hasn't yet brought government to a standstill." * * *

'Privacy' excuse just a fig leaf? Another broad exception commonly cited is for anything considered a "clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy." That's the exemption school officials used when irate parents at Clinton Junior High School demanded answers after their 8th graders were forced to kneel during a lecture about discipline. * * *

The privacy exemption is broadly used in Illinois to protect everything from performance evaluations and disciplinary cases to résumés and employment contracts of public servants. It can also be used to deny 911 tapes and redact police reports.

But when public officials don't make such records available, the secrecy sometimes breeds suspicion.

The story is accompanied by this striking graphic, captioned "Thom Rae received this heavily redacted memo after he filed a Freedom of Information Act request. The document was repeatedly referred to in public meetings about the renovation of an old movie theater in downtown La Grange."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 3, 2009 11:46 AM
Posted to General Law Related