Today, Governor Pat Quinn signed into law Senate Bill 189, a rewrite of the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. The new law advances Illinois from being one of the worst states in the country for accessing public records, to one of the best. Significant improvements in the law include a shorter time span by which a public body must respond to a FOIA request, capping the costs that public bodies may charge citizens, and granting enforcement powers to the office of the Public Access Counselor. Over the past six months, the Citizen Advocacy Center worked with the Attorney General's Office, the Illinois Press Association, and other prominent good government organizations to strengthen the public's ability to access information about the actions of Illinois Government.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Illinois Gets Improved FOIA Access
Moving towards transparency... this happened last month:
Today, Governor Pat Quinn signed into law Senate Bill 189, a rewrite of the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. The new law advances Illinois from being one of the worst states in the country for accessing public records, to one of the best. Significant improvements in the law include a shorter time span by which a public body must respond to a FOIA request, capping the costs that public bodies may charge citizens, and granting enforcement powers to the office of the Public Access Counselor. Over the past six months, the Citizen Advocacy Center worked with the Attorney General's Office, the Illinois Press Association, and other prominent good government organizations to strengthen the public's ability to access information about the actions of Illinois Government.
Today, Governor Pat Quinn signed into law Senate Bill 189, a rewrite of the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. The new law advances Illinois from being one of the worst states in the country for accessing public records, to one of the best. Significant improvements in the law include a shorter time span by which a public body must respond to a FOIA request, capping the costs that public bodies may charge citizens, and granting enforcement powers to the office of the Public Access Counselor. Over the past six months, the Citizen Advocacy Center worked with the Attorney General's Office, the Illinois Press Association, and other prominent good government organizations to strengthen the public's ability to access information about the actions of Illinois Government.
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"...granting enforcement powers to the office of the Public Access Counselor."
ReplyDelete'course, there's no additional funding to the PAC's office for the new enforcement
oh, and the position of PAC is currently vacant...
Public Access Counselor