Open Illinois.org

In the aftermath of a new FOIA law passing both houses of the General Assembly–and currently sitting on Governor Quinn’s desk–the Northwest Herald today wrote a lengthy article about how the new law means more work for local governments, some of which have limited or part-time staffs.

The simple matter of it is, although the revisions to FOIA put a bit more bite in the law, local governments don’t need to stress about an onslaught of requests for public records. All they have to do is step into the 21st century and put their records online.

The paper writes:

For smaller governments without full-time staffs, such as Ringwood, the new law could mean added hardship, Village President Rick Mack said.

“It would put a tremendous burden on small municipalities like Ringwood with small staffs and budgets, but when Gov. Quinn signs the law, we will comply as we always have,” Mack said.

Why not put all financial records online so you don’t have to worry about making copies and using limited man hours? We have some tips on how you, as a municipality, school district or county can do that here.