What's All The FOIA Buzz?

What’s the FOIA buzz about?

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests are important bipartisan information tools in Illinois. In fact, Attorney General Lisa Madigan has been championing the cause for "Ensuring Open and Honest Government" for the past several years.

The FOIA allows attorneys, reporters, students and private citizens of all walks of life to access information that is of public interest, but not in the public domain. Locally, FOIA has been in the news as it was used in requesting e-mail activity by the mayor on his political campaign. If true, this is a clear violation of the ethics ordinance. Without the FOIA, this information would not have been made public. Also, a Geneva Patch opinion columnist used a FOIA request to write about the red light violations and the related revenue history for the city of Geneva.

Because they rely on public funds, all Illinois taxing bodies are subject to FOIA requests. The process for making a FOIA request is straightforward. You complete a form and send it to the individual who is designated as the FOIA officer.

Upon receipt of your request, the FOIA officer is required to respond with the requested information or with an explanation for not complying with the request within five business days. Most FOIA requests are quickly answered, while some are denied for technical or privileged information reasons. To give some perspective on the number of FOIA requests made locally, consider the following FOIA requests made with the city of Geneva for calendar year 2011.

Total Number of FOIA Requests Received or Responded to — 348   Total Number of Individuals Requesting FOIAs— 291

The cost of FOIA requests is an interesting topic. The FOIA officer who responds to a FOIA request and the administrative staffers who often fulfill the request with research, copying and mailing activities are generally full-time staff members. Many FOIA requests are fulfilled via electronic communication, which should take little time and effort. As tax-supported positions, staff members are compensated for a wide range of administrative tasks. Responding to FOIA requests is part of the administrative duties and is often included in the job description of these positions.

The city of Geneva does not calculate a staff cost in terms of dollars, but it does track number of hours, or fractional hour responding to requests. Other taxing bodies in Geneva, including CUSD 304, not only calculate a staff members time against task to determine a hypothetical cost for a FOIA requests, but often rely on outside law firms to review the requests and response material.

Recently, a Geneva Patch opinion columnist characterized in his writing howw FOIA requests made on behalf of the taxpayers of Geneva with CUSD 304 were abusive and costly. The writer claimed that the cost to respond to Geneva TaxFACTS (GTF) FOIA requests was nearly $20,000.

When pointed out that his flair for exaggeration and hyperbole might be appropriate for his opinion column, defaming statements against me and other concerned citizens was an actionable event, his outrageous and defaming statement was promptly deleted by the Geneva Patch.

Adding to the problem, the writer claimed his source of the fabrication cost number was School Board member Matt Henry. I have compiled my recent GTF FOIA requests and the hypothetical costs assigned by CUSD 304 staff members, as well as added costs of outside legal review.

The readers can decide if the requests weren’t relevant; the costs assigned are totally up to the School District.  

All FOIA Requests and Associated Costs for 2011

FOIA Subject

District Employee Cost

Attorney

Reason

Bus Driver Contract

 $ 7.19

Compare salaries vs. other districts.  Geneva is highest paid

Coultrap Facility

 $1,511.00

 $1,026.00

Dr. Mutchler stated the city will not allow Coultrap to be used as an attendance center (school) again.  There are no documents from the city stating this to be true.  The board never voted to approve selling the Fourth Street School and moving the administration to Coultrap.  They discussed it but never voted some claimed that they did vote.

Teachers Contract

 $20.63

Determine the details of salary, benefits, retirement and other compensation

Pennington Lawsuit

 $65.13

 $264.00

Cost to date spent on lawsuit filed against a previous principal and grant writer.  Why did the attorney need to review? The question was simple.

Treasurer Reports

 $38.45

Determine monthly cash balances

Teachers Salary

 $168.87

 $285.00

Analysis of two years which Craig Collins did not complete. This is part of the four-salary review on our website. Again, the salaries are public knowledge. Why did the attorney need to review?

Bids for Turf Field

 $78.40

 $152.00

What was true cost of proposed turf field?  Never received the bids because they weren’t public knowledge at the time.

Pennington Lawsuit

 $92.76

 $947.40

Update on taxpayers funds spent for this lawsuit.  Again, why the attorneys review? Didn’t they already know what they billed the school district

Totals

 $1,982.43

 $2,674.40

The Geneva Patch’s article claimed that the majority of the information that I requested was already on the Geneva District 304 website. Clearly, this statement is not true.

The district does not list teacher salary, turf field bids, information on the legal costs for the Pennington lawsuit, monthly treasurer reports or detailed information about the Coultrap facility. They do now list bus driver salary and the teachers’ contract.

The School Board is requiring that a taxpayer in Geneva send a FOIA request after each board of education meeting in order to receive a video copy of the public meeting. This resident is posting the full meeting on a free website at no charge to the taxpayers. And yet the district is making it difficult to get one copy of the video that they are using a taxpayer paid camera to shoot and paying a person to film with taxpayer money. It has taken the district more than two years to post a good copy of the meeting on a website so that residents can view it anytime they want. They still haven’t done it, yet this private citizen did it in two days. Sounds unbelievable, but it is true.

Read the teachers’ contract someday; it is very enlightening. I believe it is important for the taxpayers to know the amounts spent on legal fees for district lawsuits, especially when they are civil suits, not criminal. I do question why the attorney is involved in so many requests, especially the ones concerning the Pennington lawsuit. I requested the total legal fees billed to date. Wouldn’t the attorney have that information immediately? Why does it cost $1,000 for the attorney to tell what was already billed?

My question on the Coultrap facility was too broad, I should have just asked for the proof of Dr. Mutchler’s statement that the city would not allow the school to be used as a school again. Then again, they could not find proof of any statement like that and that is one of the main reasons Coultrap now sits empty. The board was under the impression that Coultrap could never be used as an attendance center once the children moved out in 2008.

Our writer seems to find the City of Geneva FOIA Request to be a useful tool when he is gathering content for his professional writing trade. The recent piece he wrote on the controversy over red light cameras in Geneva was supported by the data requested in a FOIA.

His March 1, 2012, request for information on a city of Geneva employee will also likely end up in his Patch opinion piece. He also seems to have found the personal value of a FOIA request as a private citizen when he requested “any and all records, reports and video of any and all January or February 2010 traffic stop with IL plate KMCC2.”

What do you think? Should FOIA be used for “ensuring open and honest government” or only when the request selectively supports a story or opinion of a writer? I believe there is value for a taxpayer to use a FOIA request, especially when a taxing body will not answer questions in a public setting.