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Requests for inspection or copies shall be made in writing and directed to the village. Written requests may be submitted to the village via personal delivery, mail, telefax, or other means available to the village. The village may honor oral requests for inspection or copying. The village 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 village shall immediately be forwarded to its Freedom of Information officer or designee.
(5 ILCS 140/3(c))
(A) (1) When a person requests a copy of a record maintained in an electronic format, the village shall furnish it in the electronic format specified by the requester, if feasible. If it is not feasible to furnish the public records in the specified electronic format, then the village shall furnish it in the format in which it is maintained by the village, or in paper format at the option of the requester. The village may charge the requester for the actual cost of purchasing the recording medium, whether disc, diskette, tape, or other medium. If a request is not a request for a commercial purpose or a voluminous request, the village may not charge the requester for the costs of any search for and review of the records or other personnel costs associated with reproducing the records. Except to the extent that the General Assembly expressly provides, statutory fees applicable to copies of public records when furnished in a paper format shall not be applicable to those records when furnished in an electronic format.
(2) (a) If a voluminous request is for electronic records and those records are not in a portable document format (PDF), the village may charge up to $20 for not more than two megabytes of data, up to $40 for more than two but not more than four megabytes of data, and up to $100 for more than four megabytes of data. If a voluminous request is for electronic records and those records are in a portable document format, the village may charge up to $20 for not more than 80 megabytes of data, up to $40 for more than 80 megabytes but not more than 160 megabytes of data, and up to $100 for more than 160 megabytes of data. If the responsive electronic records are in both a portable document format and not in a portable document format, the village may separate the fees and charge the requester under both fee scales.
(b) If the village imposes a fee pursuant to this division (A)(2), it must provide the requester with an accounting of all fees, costs, and personnel hours in connection with the request for public records.
(B) Except when a fee is otherwise fixed by statute, the village may charge fees reasonably calculated to reimburse its actual cost for reproducing and certifying public records and for the use, by any person, of the equipment of the village to copy records. No fees shall be charged for the first 50 pages of black and white, letter or legal sized copies requested by a requester. The fee for black and white, letter or legal sized copies shall not exceed $.15 per page. If the village provides copies in color or in a size other than letter or legal, the village may not charge more than its actual cost for reproducing the records. In calculating its actual cost for reproducing records or for the use of the equipment of the village to reproduce records, the village shall not include the costs of any search for and review of the records or other personnel costs associated with reproducing the records, except for commercial requests as provided in division (F) below. Such fees shall be imposed according to a standard scale of fees, established and made public by the body imposing them. The cost for certifying a record shall not exceed $1.
(C) Documents shall be furnished without charge or at a reduced charge, as determined by the village, if the person requesting the documents states the specific purpose for the request and indicates that a waiver or reduction of the fee is in the public interest. Waiver or reduction of the fee is in the public interest if the principal purpose of the request is to access and disseminate information regarding the health, safety and welfare or the legal rights of the general public and is not for the principal purpose of personal or commercial benefit. For purposes of this division (C), COMMERCIAL BENEFIT shall not apply to requests made by news media when the principal purpose of the request is to access and disseminate information regarding the health, safety, and welfare or the legal rights of the general public. In setting the amount of the waiver or reduction, the village may take into consideration the amount of materials requested and the cost of copying them.
(D) The imposition of a fee not consistent with divisions (A) and (B) above constitutes a denial of access to public records for the purposes of judicial review.
(E) The fee for each abstract of a driver’s record shall be as provided in § 6-118 of the Illinois Vehicle Code (625 ILCS 5/6-118), approved September 29, 1969, as amended, whether furnished as a paper copy or as an electronic copy.
(F) The village may charge up to $10 for each hour spent by personnel in searching for and retrieving a requested record or examining the record for necessary redactions. No fees shall be charged for the first 8 hours spent by personnel in searching for or retrieving a requested record. The village may charge the actual cost of retrieving and transporting public records from an off-site storage facility when the public records are maintained by a third-party storage company under contract with the village. If the village imposes a fee pursuant to this division (F), it must provide the requester with an accounting of all fees, costs, and personnel hours in connection with the request for public records. The provisions of this division (F) apply only to commercial requests.
(5 ILCS 140/6)
(A) The village 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 § 34.08. Denials shall be in writing and in accordance with § 34.11. 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. A public body that 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 those copies. A public body that fails to respond to a request received may not treat the request as unduly burdensome under § 34.09.
(5 ILCS 140/3(d))
(B) The time periods for compliance or denial of a request to inspect or copy records set out in 5 ILCS 140/3 shall not apply to requests for records made for a commercial purpose, requests by a recurrent requester, or voluminous requests. Such requests shall be subject to the provisions of 5 ILCS 140/3.1, 3.2 and 3.6.
(5 ILCS 140/3(i))
(A) (1) The time for response under this chapter may be extended by the village 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 § 7 of the Freedom of Information Act (5 ILCS 140/7) or should be revealed only with appropriate deletions;
(f) The request for records cannot be complied with by the village within the time limits prescribed by § 34.05 without unduly burdening or interfering with the operations of the village;
(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 the 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 village may agree in writing to extend the time for compliance for a period to be determined by the parties. If the requester and the village agree to extend the period for compliance, a failure by the village to comply with any previous deadlines shall not be treated as a denial of the request for the records.
(5 ILCS 140/3(e))
(B) When additional time is required for any of the above reasons, the President 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. A public body that 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. A public body that requests an extension and subsequently fails to respond to the request may not treat the request as unduly burdensome under § 34.09.
(5 ILCS 140/3(f))
(A) Requests calling for all records falling within a category shall be complied with unless compliance with the request would be unduly burdensome for the village, there is no way to narrow the request, and the burden on the village outweighs the public interest in the information. Before invoking this exemption, the village 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 the village 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 village. Such a response shall be treated as a denial of the request for information.
(B) 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.
(5 ILCS 140/3(g))
Information exempted by § 7 of the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (5 ILCS 140/7) shall be exempt from inspection and copying. The President and Clerk shall keep available for use by the public and village personnel a current copy of § 7 of the Freedom of Information Act.
Statutory reference:
Exemptions from inspection and copying, see 5 ILCS 140/7
Statutory exemptions from inspection and copying, see 5 ILCS 140/7.5
(A) Each public body denying a request for public records shall notify the requester in writing of the decision to deny the request, the reasons for the denial, including a detailed factual basis for the application of any exemption claimed, and the names and titles or positions of each person responsible for the denial. Each notice of denial by a public body shall also inform the person of the right to review by the Public Access Counselor and provide the address and phone number for the Public Access Counselor. Each notice of denial shall inform the person of his or her right to judicial review under 5 ILCS 140/11.
(B) When a request for public records is denied on the grounds that the records are exempt under 5 ILCS 140/7, the notice of denial shall specify the exemption claimed to authorize the denial and the specific reasons for the denial, including a detailed factual basis and a citation to supporting legal authority. Copies of all notices of denial shall be retained by each public body in a single central office file that is open to the public and indexed according to the type of exemption asserted and, to the extent feasible, according to the types of records requested.
(C) Any person making a request for public records shall be deemed to have exhausted his or her administrative remedies with respect to that request if the village fails to act within the time periods provided in 5 ILCS 140/3.
(5 ILCS 140/9)
Statutory reference:
Public Access Counselor, see 5 ILCS 140/9.5
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