Last year, in an unusual outbreak of good government, the Illinois House and Senate passed a comprehensive rewrite of the state's Freedom of Information Act and Open Meetings Act to, in the words of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, "increase the transparency and accountability of governments at all levels."

The amendment strengthened the FOIA and OMA in a number of ways — by codifying the position of the public access counselor in the AG's office, by shortening the time governments have to respond to FOIA requests, by authorizing the attorney general to issue binding opinions in FOIA and OMA disputes, by allowing courts to impose penalties on governments that fail to comply with the laws, among other provisions.

No sooner was the new FOIA in effect, however, than the General Assembly began to chip away at the provisions it had just approved. 

In February, the General Assembly wasted no time in exempting school teacher, principal and superintendent evaluations from the FOIA. Last week, House Bill 5154, which passed the House 70-39, went even further, exempting performance evaluations of all public employees from disclosure. The measure is now pending in the Senate. Local state representatives Bill Black of Danville, Chapin Rose of Mahomet and Shane Cultra of Onarga, all Republicans, voted against the bill, while Urbana Democrat Naomi Jakobsson voted in  favor.

Note that Section 7 of the new FOIA law states that "the disclosure of information that bears on the public duties of public employees and officials shall not be considered an invasion of personal privacy." It appears that may not be the case for long.

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