State lawmakers cloud over sunshine laws

SPRINGFIELD - Public employee evaluations, including those of police officers and firefighters, could be kept secret under a measure the Illinois Senate sent to Gov. Pat Quinn Thursday.

The proposal, which was approved 45-9, comes after similar legislation was approved sealing evaluations for teachers, school administrators and principals. Labor unions argued that other public employees' evaluations should also be kept private.

State Sen. John Millner, a Carol Stream Republican, said sharing evaluations could cause managers to inflate evaluations out of concern they might become public, which doesn't help employees improve their work.

"If you're writing a performance evaluation, you typically write it for the employee," said Millner, a former police chief who has written hundreds of evaluations. "You don't write it for the world to see."

But state Sen. Carol Pankau, an Itasca Republican, railed against the legislation, saying she was uncomfortable rolling back sweeping changes to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act that the lawmakers approved last year in the name of reform. Those changes make it easier, cheaper and quicker for members of the public to obtain government information.

"It seems like piece by piece we're in essence going back to the way it was before," Pankau said. "If you're going to pass sunshine laws, let's truly make them sunshine."

The original push to exempt educators' evaluations was part of a deal between lawmakers and teachers unions to shore up support to apply for federal education dollars as part of the President Barack Obama's Race to the Top program.

State Sen. Dan Duffy, a Lake Barrington Republican, cautioned against the legislation, saying the evaluations should be available to the public because these employees' salaries are being paid with tax dollars.

"The taxpayers do have the right, and it is not unreasonable for them to know what is going on with these performance reviews," Duffy said.

Meanwhile, state Sen. Kimberly Lightford, Maywood Democrat who sponsored the proposal, said the employees are taxpayers too and should have some level of privacy.

"There has to be a line that we draw where we do protect the personal interest of people," Lightford said. "We do let them know because you're a public employee, we trust that you will come to work and do a good job. If you don't, then you will be disciplined by the employer - not by John Q. Public."

In other legislative action, the Illinois House sent a measure to the governor that would allow employees to be notified by e-mail when their disciplinary records had been requested under public information laws. They currently are given notice, but not electronically.