(A) In accordance with Section 3.5 of the Act, the Village Board shall designate an employee or officer of the village to serve as Freedom of Information Officer. The designated Freedom of Information Officer may. from time to time, designate additional employees or officers to serve as deputy Freedom of Information Officers for particular departments or divisions of the village as necessary to expedite the FOIA process. Freedom of Information Officers and Deputies shall be charged with the responsibility for implementing these policies and procedures and processing all requests for information in accordance with the terms of the Act. Deputy Freedom of Information Officers shall, at the discretion of the Freedom of Information Officer, be given the authority to act as the primary Freedom of Information Officer for each department or division in which they have been assigned. Each individual designated as a Freedom of Information Officer or Deputy shall successfully complete an annual training curriculum through the State of Illinois, as provided in the Act.
(B) All FOIA requests shall be date stamped upon receipt, the Freedom of Information Officer shall forward a copy of the request to the appropriate contact employee for the department in which the records are located. Upon forwarding the request to the appropriate department, the Freedom of Information Officer shall also indicate the date by which the request must be approved or denied (five working days from the date of receipt).
(C) The employee responsible for providing the information on behalf of his/her department shall promptly either comply with or deny the request. The employee shall notify the Freedom of Information Officer of his/her action on the request no later than five working days after its receipt. The Freedom of Information Officer shall then respond in writing to the requestor accordingly. If denying the request, the official responsible for the denial must include, in writing, the following information:
(1) The statutory exemption used as the basis for the denial and the specific reasons for the denial, including a detailed factual basis and citation to supporting legal authority;
(2) The names/titles of each person responsible for the denial;
(3) The notice of the requestor’s statutory right to petition the Public Access Counselor for review of the denial; and
(4) The notice of the requestor’s statutory right to judicial review under section 11 of the Act.
(D) If any public record exempt from disclosure contains material which is not exempt, the village shall delete the exempt information and make the remaining information available for inspection and copying.
(E) If the responsible employee determines that there is not adequate time to gather the requested information, the time limit may be extended by an additional five working days. Extensions should be reserved only for extenuating circumstances. Appropriate reasons for extension include:
(1) The requested record is in a place other than the office at which the record is being requested.
(2) The request requires the collection of a substantial number of specified records.
(3) The request is understood in categorical terms and requires an extensive search for the records responsive to it.
(4) The requested records have not been located in the course of routine search and additional efforts are being made to locate them.
(5) The requested records require examination and evaluation by personnel having the necessary competence and discretion to determine if the records are exempt from disclosure under Section 7 of the Act, or should be revealed only with appropriate deletions.
(6) The request for records cannot be complied with by the public body within the time limits prescribed by Section 3 of the Act without unduly burdening or interfering with the operations of the public body.
(7) 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.
(F) When additional time is required for any of the aforementioned reasons, the responsible employee shall notify the Freedom of Information Officer as soon as possible, but no later than four working days after receipt of the request. The Freedom of Information Officer shall then immediately send written notice of extension to the requestor, stating the reasons for the extension and the date by which the records will be available or that a denial will be forthcoming. Extensions will not be granted for a period exceeding five working days, except in the most unusual circumstances; provided that any such extraordinary period for extension will first be agreed upon in writing by both the requestor and the Freedom of Information Officer.
(G) All requests for public records made under the FOIA shall be maintained in a file in an office designated by the Freedom of Information Officer and preserved in accordance with the provisions of the Local Records Act. Documents maintained in this file shall include, but not be limited to, the following: the original request, a copy of the written response, a record of written communications with the requestor, and a copy of all other communications. Additionally, all denials of FOIA requests shall, by law, be indexed according to the statutory basis for the individual denial. To the extent practicable, these records should be further subdivided by type or category of record requested.
(H) In accordance with the provisions of Section 4 of the Act, the Freedom of Information Officer shall be responsible for publishing and maintaining a local FOIA manual, pamphlet, or other substantially similar document containing the following information:
(1) A brief description of the Village of Shiloh, including, but not limited to:
(a) A short summary of its purpose;
(b) A block diagram of its functional subdivisions;
(c) The total amount of its operating budget;
(d) The number and location of each of its separate offices;
(e) The approximate number of full and part time employees; and
(f) The identification and membership of any board, commission, committee or council which operates in an advisory capacity relative to the operation of the public body, or which exercises control over its policies or procedures.
(2) A brief description of the methods whereby the public may request information and public records.
(3) A directory designating by titles and addresses those employees to whom requests for public records should be directed.
(4) A schedule of local fees, as allowable under Section 6 of the Act.
(5) A reasonably current list of all types or categories of records maintained by the Village of Shiloh.
(6) A listing of all documents or categories of records that the Village shall immediately disclose upon request.
(7) A description of the manner in which public records stored by means of electronic data processing may be obtained in a format comprehensible to persons lacking knowledge of computer language or printout format.
(I) All of the foregoing general information shall also be made available for public access on the Village of Shiloh’s website.