Information law changes 'just a draft,' official says

Take a deep breath, people.

A day after Illinois legislative leaders floated a proposal for changes in the state's Freedom of Information Act that seems at polar opposites with what the Illinois Attorney General and the Illinois Reform Commission wants, some are saying don't panic.

This, they say in short, is how legislation works. The attorney general and the Illinois Reform Commission put forth one proposal, and now legislators put forth a different one.

"The sky is not falling," said Cara Smith, deputy chief of staff to Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

While Smith said the office definitely is not in favor of the proposal put out by Illinois House and Illinois Senate leaders, it's just a starting point.

"They (legislative leaders) made clear - we had an almost 4-hour conference last night - that this is just a draft - and that they were inviting - significant discussion around those points," Smith said.

Steve Brown, a spokesman for House Speaker Mike Madigan - Lisa Madigan's father - said the proposal, which would keep secret the addresses of those arrested on criminal charges, was the product of several interest groups' and legislators' input.

Still, good-government advocates were none too enamored with the leadership's proposal, which they see as going 180 degrees in the wrong direction.

Don Craven, an attorney for the Illinois Press Association - of which the Daily Herald is a member - said the law changes something that, as far as he knows, no one wants changed: the release of criminals' addresses.

"The language in the public records act was negotiated with the chiefs of police," Craven noted.

Such addresses are important to differentiate criminals with common names, like John Smith, from the law-abiding John Smiths, he noted.

Broadening the reasons for documents to be withheld from the public is "generally a bad idea," said Patrick Collins of the Illinois Reform Commission. "We should be turning down the exceptions not turning them up. But there are some legitimate things like privacy and the devil's in the details but generally speaking the approach of our commission is, 'How can we reduce the exemptions, not increase the exemptions?'"

Not everyone loves the reform version, of course.

"First, this act is fraught with ambiguities and to then say someone - could get a criminal record for failing to produce a document, I think, is extreme," said Ralph Huebner, general counsel with the Illinois Municipal League.

That one proposal is coming from Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, and the other from her father's office is nothing new, said Brown.

"The speaker and the attorney general don't always see eye to eye on things," said Brown.

Daily Herald Staff Writer Justin Kmitch contributed to this report.