Better Government Association

Public info slow, unsure from offices

April 9, 2007

By Patrick Ferrell, Janet Lundquist and Kim Smith staff writers For the most part, Will and Grundy county residents should feel pretty good about how their governments responded to a request for public records.

The Herald News submitted requests for copies of bills and invoices spent on holiday and retirement parties and gifts under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

All requests were filled, although the process wasn't completely without problems.

Requests sent to the city of Wilmington and village of New Lenox were lost in the paper shuffle.

Wilmington did not respond to two requests made directly to City Administrator John McIntyre, who said he received the first faxed request dated Feb. 1, but lost it in a pile of paperwork on his desk. The second request was faxed on March 1.

Assistant City Administrator Sheryl Puracchio provided the requested information after finding out about the two unanswered requests.

Fax and phone calls

In New Lenox, the request was faxed to the clerk's fax machine on March 6, the day after the village moved to its new village hall. Seven business days later, after a phone call from a reporter, Village Clerk Marcia Englert said she never saw the request. The request was then e-mailed, and the village responded two days later. The village's initial response did not include information about an appreciation dinner held every March. A few days after a reporter verbally requested those records, the village complied.

Morris Mayor Dick Kopczick followed up an unanswered FOI request with a personal phone call, apologizing for the delay and saying there was a miscommunication in the city office on who was handling the request. The city eventually complied with the request.

An FOI request e-mailed to Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar and other village officials got a reply from Claar within a half hour.

"You will get a formal letter from the clerk or the attorney (see copy to:) indicating what I'm sending you but there were none either year, in either category. Sorry, you can roast someone else! Roger Claar," the e-mail read.

Compliance study

While the paper had nearly complete success with its requests, a Better Government Association survey last year found Will and Grundy county taxing bodies don't comply well when it comes to fulfilling residents' requests for records. The BGA conducted its own survey acting as ordinary citizens. Its report, entitled "Curiosity Killed the Cat," detailed the challenges an ordinary citizen faced when asking for public records in Illinois.

The BGA study found 62 percent of public bodies in the state failed to comply with the Freedom of Information Act when the request came from ordinary citizens.

"The results are appalling," said Jay Stewart, BGA executive director. "When the overwhelming majority does not comply with the law and produce records that are clearly available under FOIA, something is seriously wrong."

The BGA asked for local and long-distance phone bills, as well as call logs for the highest-ranking individual of different agencies for the week of Oct. 16-23, 2005. It also asked for names, titles, hire dates, salaries and overtime paid to employees.

Of the eight FOIA requests sent to public entities in Will and Grundy counties, the Grundy County clerk's office and the Will County Forest Preserve District were the only two that complied.

No replys

The Morris city clerk's office, the Morris Public Library District, the Joliet city clerk's office, the Will County clerk's office and the Will County regional office of education never responded. A late but fully compliant request was sent by the Saratoga School District in Morris. "This shows that ordinary taxpayers are too often denied a right so clearly provided by the Freedom of Information Act," Stewart said. "If public officials are not educated enough on the law, we need to educate them."

The BGA is recommending some amendments to the Illinois FOIA, including a requirement that public bodies report on their compliance with the law each year. The Illinois Attorney General Public Access Counselor should also have the authority to enforce the law and be given more power to help citizens with their requests, the BGA recommends.

Our reporters used a standard form clearly stating that we were from The Herald News and were requesting information for use in news stories. Reporters also followed up with phone calls if requests were not fulfilled completely.

This could be the reason the paper's results were better.

Reporter Patrick Ferrell can be reached at pferrell@scn1.com
Reporter Janet Lundquist can be reached at jlundquist@scn1.com
Reporter Kim Smith can be reached at ksmith@scn1.com