(A) The county shall make available to any person for inspection or copying all public records, except as otherwise provided in § 36.15 and ILCS Ch. 5, Act 140, § 8.5. Notwithstanding any other law, the county may not grant to any person or entity, whether by contract, license, or otherwise, the exclusive right to access and disseminate any public record as defined in this chapter.
(B) Subject to the fee provisions of § 36.14, the county shall promptly provide, to any person who submits a request, a copy of any public record required to be disclosed by division (A) above and shall certify the copy if so requested.
(C) Requests for inspection or copies shall be made in writing and directed to the county. Written requests may be submitted to the county via personal delivery, mail, telefax, or other means available to the county. The county may honor oral requests for inspection or copying. The county may not require that a request be submitted on a standard form or require the requester to specify the purpose for a request, except to determine whether the records are requested for a commercial purpose or whether to grant a request for a fee waiver. All requests for inspection and copying received by the county shall immediately be forwarded to its Freedom of Information Officer or designee.
(D) The county shall, promptly, either comply with or deny a request for public records within five business days after its receipt of the request, unless the time for response is properly extended under division (E) below. Denial shall be in writing as provided in § 36.17. Failure to comply with a written request, extend the time for response, or deny a request within five business days after its receipt shall be considered a denial of the request. If the county fails to respond to a request within the requisite periods in this section but thereafter provides the requester with copies of the requested public records may not impose a fee for the copies. If the county fails to respond to a request received may not treat the request as unduly burdensome under division (G).
(E) (1) The time for response under this section may be extended by the county for not more than five business days from the original due date for any of the following reasons:
(a) The requested records are stored in whole or in part at other locations than the office having charge of the requested records;
(b) The request requires the collection of a substantial number of specified records;
(c) The request is couched in categorical terms and requires an extensive search for the records responsive to it;
(d) The requested records have not been located in the course of routine search and additional efforts are being made to locate them;
(e) The requested records require examination and evaluation by personnel having the necessary competence and discretion to determine if they are exempt from disclosure under § 36.15 or should be revealed only with appropriate deletions;
(f) The request for records cannot be complied with by the county within the time limits prescribed by division (C) above without unduly burdening or interfering with the operations of the county;
(g) There is a need for consultation, which shall be conducted with all practicable speed, with another public body or among two or more components of a public body having a substantial interest in the determination or in the subject matter of the request.
(2) The person making a request and the county may agree in writing to extend the time for compliance for a period to be determined by the parties. If the requester and the county agree to extend the period for compliance, a failure by the county to comply with any previous deadlines shall not be treated as a denial of the request for the records.
(F) When additional time is required for any of the above reasons, the county shall, within five business days after receipt of the request, notify the person making the request of the reasons for the extension and the date by which the response will be forthcoming. Failure to respond within the time permitted for extension shall be considered a denial of the request. If the county fails to respond to a request within the time permitted for extension but thereafter provides the requester with copies of the requested public records may not impose a fee for those copies. If the county requests an extension and subsequently fails to respond to the request may not treat the request as unduly burdensome under division (G).
(G) (1) Requests calling for all records falling within a category shall be complied with unless compliance with the request would be unduly burdensome for the complying county and there is no way to narrow the request and the burden on the county outweighs the public interest in the information. Before invoking this exemption, the county shall extend to the person making the request an opportunity to confer with it in an attempt to reduce the request to manageable proportions. If anybody responds to a categorical request by stating that compliance would unduly burden its operation and the conditions described above are met, it shall do so in writing, specifying the reasons why it would be unduly burdensome and the extent to which compliance will so burden the operations of the county. The response shall be treated as a denial of the request for information.
(2) Repeated requests from the same person for the same records that are unchanged or identical to records previously provided or properly denied under this chapter shall be deemed unduly burdensome under this provision.
(H) The county may promulgate rules and regulations in conformity with the provisions of this section pertaining to the availability of records and procedures to be followed, including:
(1) The times and places where the records will be made available, and
(2) The persons from whom the records may be obtained.
(I) The time periods for compliance or denial of a request to inspect or copy records set out in this section shall not apply to requests for records made for a commercial purpose, requests by a recurrent requester, or voluminous requests. The requests shall be subject to the provisions of ILCS Ch. 5, Act 140, § 3.6 and §§ 36.08 and 36.09 below.
(ILCS Ch. 5, Act 140, § 3)