Illinois Attorney General's public access bureau received its fewest requests for assistance in a decade last year
The number of requests for help from the Illinois attorney general's public access bureau dropped last year to its lowest point in a decade.
A spokeswoman for Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said the public access bureau began offering webinars to public officials about complying with Freedom of Information Act requests and the state's Open Meetings Act"with the goal of reducing the likelihood of violations before they occur." "The bones are there, but there's a lot that needs to be updated and optimized," said Jack Bentley, executive director of the Citizen Advocacy Center in Elmhurst."I'd start by increasing the budget and increasing the staff, because the biggest roadblock our constituents find to be concerning is the timeline and how long it takes to process these requests."
Over the past decade, the bureau has issued an average of 15 binding opinions each year. That means that less than half of 1% of all complaints received by the PAC result in a decision that is enforceable in court. "That's an easy fix for them, and it might help reduce the number of denials and requests for review," Bentley suggested.
"And every once in a while people just get tired and don't pursue things like they might have used to," he said.
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