The Illinois Attorney General's Public Access Officer recently issued a Binding Opinion that states how Kankakee County violated the Freedom of Information Act.
They did not respond to in a timely manner and failed to deny in part or in whole a FOIA request submitted by Scott J. Schweickert.
In October of 2019, Schweickert requested copies of all agreements between Kankakee County and World Fuel Services, Inc. and any ordinances that authorize the execution of those agreements. Kankakee County ignored the FOIA request, disregarded two attempts by the Attorney General's Public Access Officer to access information, failed to provide written responses for the attorney general or initial requester, and four months later, say they are still searching for the records.
Kankakee has been ordered by the attorney general to immediately turn over the records with only permissible redactions. The Binding Opinion states “Therefore, it is the opinion of the Attorney General that the County has violated section 3( d) of FOIA by failing, within five business days after receiving Mr. Schweickert’ s October 21, 2019, FOIA request, to provide copies of the requested records, to extend the time for its response pursuant to section 3( e) of FOIA, or to deny the request in whole or in part. Accordingly, the County is hereby directed to take immediate and appropriate action to comply with this opinion by providing Mr. Schweickert with all records responsive to his October 21, 2019, request, subject only to permissible redactions, if any, under section 7 of FOIA . . .”
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