Quinn must stand for transparency

Dear Gov. Quinn,

The Illinois General Assembly recently passed HB 1716, which limits citizen access to government information under the state’s new and improved Freedom of Information Act, a measure you signed into law soon after becoming governor. The Better Government Association urges you to reject this bill. If you do, it will reaffirm your commendable and oft-repeated vow to make Illinois more transparent, accountable and accessible to the people.

The new FOIA law, which went into effect 2010, increased transparency and opened government by requiring each public body to appoint a FOIA officer to handle FOIA requests, ensuring a fast turnaround for those requests, and expanding the definition of “public record” so the public has access to more information about how our government works. Since then, the state has been whittling down the scope of the new law.

Last year, lawmakers passed a measure that reduced public access to vital information about the job performance evaluations of public officials like teachers and police officers. Now, with cries of excessive costs, undue burdens and nettlesome inconvenience, lawmakers want to again limit the ability of citizens to freely access public information.

HB 1716 allows public bodies to label taxpayers as “recurrent requesters” if they submit more than 50 FOIA requests in one year, 15 in 30 days, or seven in seven days — a label that sticks for a year. Moreover, once someone is labeled a “recurrent requester,” there is no set timetable for the public body to follow for providing the information requested.

This is bad public policy. Gov. Quinn, if you are as committed to open and transparent government as you claim, you will reaffirm your support for more open access to public information by rejecting HB 1716.

Andy Shaw

President & CEO

Better Government Association

Chicago