State senate 31 candidates differ on employer performance reviews

Democratic state Sen. Michael Bond and his Republican challenger differ on whether personnel evaluations of public workers should be exempt from Illinois' open-records law.

Republican Suzi Schmidt, the Lake County Board chairwoman, is trying to unseat Bond. The candidates are running in the 31st Senate District that covers nearly all of northern Lake County.

Bond and Schmidt responded to a Daily Herald question about the state's revamped Freedom of Information Act. They also touched on other topics in questionnaires they completed for the newspaper.

Illinois' retooled open records law took effect Jan. 1. It's supposed to provide greater access to public records and offer an appeals system for people whose document requests are denied or who experience resistance from government agencies.

However, lawmakers later voted to keep secret the performance evaluations of police officers, firefighters, teachers, school administrators and other public employees.

Schmidt, 59, of Lake Villa, said she does not back the exceptions for the taxpayer-supported workers that were made in the state's Freedom of Information Act.

"I believe government should be transparent and that the evaluations of the public workers should not be exempt from FOIA," Schmidt said.

Bond, 40, of Grayslake, said he voted in favor of the exemptions and still believes they are proper.

"Effective performance management of individual workers is better handled in private," Bond said. "I believe public disclosure of these reports would have a chilling effect on honest work-performance feedback and therefore lower the value of conducting performance reviews, which are a key part of evaluating employees."

Bond won the four-year state senate post when he defeated Republican Warren Township Supervisor Suzanne Simpson in 2006. The late Adeline Geo-Karis, a Lake County political legend who served in the General Assembly for parts of four decades, held the senate seat before Bond.