Editorial: Open records act needs some teeth

What happens when a governmental agency defies the state attorney general's ruling that documents should be released to the public?

In Illinois, nothing.

That's because the state Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lacks any enforcement on the front end of a public request.

Need examples?

The village of Carpentersville refuses, so far, to release the arrest report and video of a traffic stop of a man who died less than 24 hours later.

The DuPage County Forest Preserve District refuses, so far, to release a copy of a letter sent to its executive director that he says told him he could either retire early or be terminated without cause. He opted to retire early.

It took more than a year to get Metra, the suburban commuter rail agency, to release an internal investigation report into Metra's 2013 patronage scandal.

In all these cases, the attorney general's office deemed the requested information public and ruled it should be released.

But in all the cases, the local authorities deemed the attorney general wrong and said no. In essence, they said, transparency be damned.

Now, to be fair, that's not what they actually said. In Carpentersville, authorities said they are waiting to release the requested information until after an Illinois State Police investigation is completed.

In DuPage County, officials said the letter was "personnel related" and therefore exempt.

And at Metra, well, they'd still be fighting the report's release if Martin Oberman, who was named the new board chairman in February, didn't intervene.

It's clear that the law needs beefing up if it is to be as effective as other states'. Josh Sharp, director of government relations at the Illinois Press Association, said Illinois legislators have been reticent to put any enforcement measures in the process up front. Other states, like Virginia and Arkansas, he said, have stronger laws that compel compliance.

Even when the attorney general makes a binding opinion, governmental bodies can keep fighting the request until it's adjudicated in court. And of the thousands of FOIA requests that the attorney general's office handles each year, only about 15 to 20 opinions rendered are binding. All the others are advisory, and therein lies the problem.

"We interpreted (the law) very differently," said Sue Olafson, DuPage forest preserve spokesman, on why the agency discounted the attorney general's ruling that the letter to the executive director was not exempt under the law.

We have been supportive of Attorney General Lisa Madigan's commitment to the Freedom of Information Act and the Open Meetings Act, but we also urge her office to work with legislators to make our FOIA law the strongest it can be. In each of the cases illustrated here - and we're sure there are many others throughout the state - the goal should have been transparency from the start.