Oak Brook backtracks on public records request
After initially refusing, the village of Oak Brook has agreed to release basic contact information for local candidates who file for the April 5 election.
The about-face came this week after the Illinois attorney general's office directed the village to a state law that requires nominating petitions to be made public.
“In our view, petitions are inherently public documents not subject to any exemptions under FOIA,” said Cara Smith, deputy chief of staff to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
Earlier this week, the Daily Herald requested access to contact information for Oak Brook village board candidates in anticipation of filing, which begins Monday. Assistant Village Manager Blaine Wing initially said FOIA laws prohibited the village from releasing any information other than candidates' names. He instructed the newspaper to put in a written request for street addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses so the village could then get permission from individual candidates to release that information.
At the time, Wing said he could be charged with a felony for giving out any “private information,” such as addresses and signatures, contained in any public document, including police reports.
“Without having the candidates have a waiver on the form (petition) to provide that information, under the statute we can't give out any information that would be considered private,” he said. “If somebody is stalking somebody else and I now gave out their address, I'm potentially contributing to a crime.”
Referring to other municipalities that agreed to release the information without question, Wing said, “Everybody else is actually violating the state statute.”
“We had to go through state FOIA training in January,” he added, “so maybe we're more familiar with this.”
But the attorney general's office said public nominating petitions are fundamental to open elections.
Smith cited a portion of Illinois election code that states “all nominating petitions shall be available inspection and shall be preserved for a period of not less than six months.”
“FOIA doesn't enter into it,” she said.
Wing later reversed his position, saying he had been under the impression that the Daily Herald wanted contact information for candidates before the opening of the filing period on Monday.
“I am not sure what information is collected on the petitions, but the village will be happy to provide the legally required information to any requester,” he wrote in an e-mail Wednesday. “I hope that clears things up and there was simply a misunderstanding of what document was being requested.”
The filing period ends Dec. 20.
Daily Herald staff writer Anna Madrzyk contributed to this story.