Fight attempts to erode FOIA law
This is a time when Illinois public officials should work on being more open than ever. The people have lost faith. Only complete openness can begin to build our trust.
Yet state leaders have failed to embrace needed reforms despite an embarrassing episode involving our now-former governor. They have shown such poor leadership for so long that the state is short $13 billion. And now they are talking about a 33 percent income tax hike and borrowing nearly $5 billion.
It's no wonder they'd prefer to operate without scrutiny and are trying again to change the law to allow all governments to do so more often. A story this week by staff writer Chase Castle looked at legislative efforts to eat away at a new law that made more documents available to the public and created an advocate for the people.
These proposals all aim to keep more documents secret and charge more for the information that is still available.
We're beyond disappointed. We're disgusted. Many have the support of local lawmakers including Republicans state Sen. John Millner of Carol Stream and state Rep. Michael Connelly of Lisle, and Democrats state Sen. Dan Kotowski of Park Ridge, state Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia of Aurora and state Rep. Paul Froehlich of Schaumburg.
The expansion of the Freedom of Information Act came under attack within days of it taking effect Jan. 1. The law was reworked by Jan. 15, when lawmakers and the governor caved to education lobbyists by removing teacher, principal and school superintendent performance reviews from disclosure.
Pending proposals to further weaken the law include:
• exempting all public employee evaluations from disclosure;
• prohibiting release of police officer evaluations;
• prohibiting the disclosure of documents related to investigations into deaths at youth prisons and exempt the review team from the Open Meetings Act;
• banning the release of personal information related to participants in park district, forest preserve and other local programs;
• making it less likely that people who sue for records would ever recoup attorney fees, even if they win.
Lawmakers, your constituents would be better served if you stopped trying to find ways to hide from public scrutiny and instead focus on reforming a corrupt system, rooting out waste and looking for innovative ways to do more with less.
Fight any erosion in the law.
It just took effect just a couple of months ago. Leave it alone. Give it a chance. Maybe it will even help Illinois shake off some of its well-deserved reputation for corruption.