Illinois gets its chief FOIA enforcer

Lisa Madigan, attorney general in Illinois, has chosen someone on her staff to be the state’s Top Sunshine Cop.

Illinois response time shortened to five days

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn just signed a good revision of the Illinois Sunshine Law.

One of the best changes is that the mandatory response time was reduced from seven days to five days.

Here’s a chart that compares request response times by state.

30% of states still don’t have any mandatory time limit for responding to FOIA requests. I believe it was Chicagoan Rahm Emanuel who said that you should never let a good crisis go to waste. In this case, sunshine-minded politicians in Illinois used the Blagojevich mess to push through these good reforms.

See the Chicago Tribune’s story:

Gov. Pat Quinn signs overhaul of state’s open records law.

You had me at “fines”.

Our Opinion: Make fines key part of FOIA fix.

See also:

Illinois Sunshine Law.

Best o’ state FOIA blogging

California:

Free and fair elections? In Orange County, not so much.

Colorado:

Salaries of public employees should be kept secret because…um, because…

Georgia:

The downside of putting government spending online? People look at it.

Illinois:

DuPage County auditor puts spending online.

Michigan:

The Michigan Education Association appears to be competing for the Fact Blocker of the Year Award.

Montana:

Sometimes all you can say is “Good luck with that”.

County commish can’t find anti-Michelle e-mails; records request declined.

Nebraska:

And if that doesn’t work, sue them. With a bunch of your friends.

New Jersey:

Jon Corzine, NJ gov, doesn’t have to give the public his e-mails with former girlfriend and labor leader Carla Katz and not everyone is happy about that.

Pennsylvania:

Bucks County is advised to put the checkbook register online. It saves scarce money in the long run. And less whining?

South Carolina:

South Carolina public schools rank in the bottom five compared to other states in terms of educational achievement. So people would like to know how they spend their money. Good luck with that.

North Carolina:

Mike Easley got some of that ol’ time FOIA religion. As he left office.

Texas:

What a rip. Apparently in Texas, state senators can do “outside work” like charging a school district $3.8 million for “legal fees”. I’m sure it’s all for the kids.

Washington, DC.

“The websites do not serve to provide information to the general public, therefore we find that you are not a representative of the news media.” So you can’t have reduced FOIA fees.

Politicians and reform promises

The State Journal-Register in Springfield, Illinois wrote an editorial today, Our Opinion: FOIA needs reform…now.

What’s frustrating them?

It’s been six years since [Illinois attorney general Lisa] Madigan campaigned on a promise to reform the law. It’s been 19 months since this newspaper’s award-winning series, “Request Denied,” showed how the public — not just pesky newspaper reporters — is not being served by a toothless and loophole-laden law. It’s been 14 months since Madigan told the Illinois Press Association, “Let me be clear: I am committed to legislatively reforming the Freedom of Information Act.”

Why is it hard to achieve reform in an area where nearly everyone (I think…am I being naive?) agrees with the goal?

Illinois state police are tight with records

State Police Reject Many Requests for Public Information.

A new report shows that Illinois state police have a woefully bad record in responding to FOIA requests:

In 2006, for example, state police received nearly 700 requests under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. They granted 175 requests, denied 146 others and reported in 81 cases that they couldn’t find the document being sought. But in more than 200 cases, there was no record of whether state police responded at all.

One interesting statistic that emerged from the study by the Springfield State Journal-Register is:

Lawyers, insurance companies, crime victims and others outnumber journalists by about 20 to 1 in making FOIA requests to the state police.