Question 1

How long does a public body have to respond to my FOIA request?

Accepted Answer

Five business days from receipt. Failing to respond within that window is itself a violation.

Question 2

What happens if a public body misses the five-day deadline?

Accepted Answer

Two consequences follow automatically: the body is barred from charging any fees for the records, and it loses the right to later claim the request is "unduly burdensome." Missing the deadline doesn't force disclosure of otherwise-exempt records — it just forfeits those two defenses.

Question 3

If a public body denies my request, do they have to explain why in writing?

Accepted Answer

Yes — a public body must either produce the records or issue a proper written denial explaining the basis. Simply not responding at all is a separate violation from denying in writing.

Question 4

Can a public body label me a "recurrent requester" to get more time or charge for labor?

Accepted Answer

Only if the "recurrent requester" classification actually applies under the statute's specific definition — PAC has found the label misapplied, including retroactively to conduct that predated the relevant amendment. If misapplied, the body must go back to processing requests under standard FOIA timelines.

Question 5

Is every government-adjacent entity required to respond to FOIA requests?

Accepted Answer

No — only entities that meet FOIA's definition of "public body." Judicial branch entities (e.g., the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board), most private non-profits, and federal agencies generally fall outside that definition and aren't required to respond.

Question 6

Can I send a FOIA request to a public official's personal email address?

Accepted Answer

No — a request has to go to the public body itself through its official channels; a request sent only to an individual official's personal email isn't considered a valid FOIA request that triggers the body's response obligation.

Question 7

Are charter schools required to comply with FOIA requests?

Accepted Answer

Yes — charter schools operate using public funds and perform a public function, so their records concerning public business are subject to FOIA.

Question 8

Can a public body charge for the time it takes to search for and pull records?

Accepted Answer

For an ordinary request, no — not at all. Section 6(a) says that if a request is not for a commercial purpose and is not a voluminous request, a public body "may not charge the requester for the costs of any search for and review of the records or other personnel costs." The separate rule allowing up to $10 per hour after the first 8 free hours is in section 6(f), which applies only to commercial requests. A fee not specifically fixed by another statute doesn't override FOIA's fee limits either.

PAC Determinations 2018-26621, 2018-31244

Read the source:The City of Rockford assessed a $10 fee for the search and retrieval of a fire report The requester was charged a fee for a DVD copy of in-car traffic stop video footage

Question 9

Can a public body pass along a private contractor's search costs to me?

Accepted Answer

No — records held by a contractor performing a government function are still public records, and the public body can't charge the requester for what it costs the contractor to search for and produce them.

Question 10

Does a public body have to give advance notice before a meeting?

Accepted Answer

Yes. A board that holds a meeting without providing advance public notice or posting an agenda violates OMA. The Waukegan Public Schools Board was found to have violated OMA for a meeting held without notice or an agenda.

PAC Determination 2015-32578

Read the source:The board held an unannounced meeting to discuss collective bargaining negotiations

Question 11

Is every informal gathering of board members a "meeting" that requires notice?

Accepted Answer

No — OMA only applies to gatherings of a quorum of a public body held to conduct public business. A partisan political gathering that board members happened to attend was found not to be a "meeting" under OMA. Similarly, PAC has found that mere attendance by a quorum at a public forum, without deliberation on public business, doesn't trigger OMA.

Question 12

Do emails between board members count as a "meeting"?

Accepted Answer

Not automatically. PAC concluded that an email exchange among board members did not constitute a "meeting" under OMA in one case, because email is not covered by the same real-time-deliberation requirement — though the details matter and quorum-wide email deliberation on public business can still be scrutinized.

PAC Determination 2018-49878/49981

Read the source:The use of email by school board members to discuss a referendum petition

Question 13

Can a public body change its meeting agenda less than 48 hours before the meeting?

Accepted Answer

It may remove items within that window without violating OMA, as long as the public still has proper notice of what remains. It may not add new topics for discussion or action in that window.

Question 14

How specific does an agenda item have to be?

Accepted Answer

Specific enough that the public can actually understand what business is being conducted and what's genuinely being decided — vague catch-all descriptions (e.g., labeling a personnel vote just "employee," or not describing the subject of a settlement or resolution) have repeatedly been found to violate the notice requirement.

Question 15

Can a public body take final action on something that wasn't listed on the agenda?

Accepted Answer

No — the general subject matter of any final action has to be on the agenda beforehand. PAC has found violations across many fact patterns (fee increases, legal settlements, policy changes, contract authorizations) where a body voted on something the agenda didn't disclose.

Question 16

Does a public body have to give notice before changing its regular meeting schedule?

Accepted Answer

Yes — advance notice of a change to the regular meeting schedule is required so the public can still find out when and where the body is meeting.

Question 17

Can a member of the public get a copy of closed-session minutes or a recording?

Accepted Answer

Not automatically. A public body may properly withhold closed-session verbatim recordings and minutes that it has not yet released to the public — this is an explicit exemption under both FOIA and OMA.

Question 18

What has to happen before a board goes into closed session?

Accepted Answer

The board must cite a specific statutory basis for closing the session and record that basis in its minutes. A library board that properly discussed probable or imminent litigation in closed session still violated OMA by failing to record the basis for closing that meeting. The same documentation requirement applies broadly — citing a valid exception isn't enough if the minutes don't actually record it.

Question 19

Are closed sessions required to be recorded?

Accepted Answer

Yes — section 2.06(a) requires a verbatim record of every closed meeting, in the form of an audio or video recording (either is acceptable). That is separate from the requirement to document the legal basis for closing the session.

Question 20

Can a board take a final vote on an employment matter — a termination, a separation agreement — in closed session?

Accepted Answer

No. Deliberation can happen in closed session, but the final vote itself has to happen in open session. This has come up repeatedly with terminations, superintendent separation agreements, and similar personnel actions.

Question 21

Can a board discuss budget, finances, or a contract in closed session?

Accepted Answer

Not just because it wants privacy — general budget discussions, college finances, and contract/bidding discussions aren't valid closed-session topics absent a specific statutory exception, and any final vote on a contract still has to happen in open session.

Question 22

Can meeting minutes themselves be approved in closed session?

Accepted Answer

No — approving minutes is itself a final action, and OMA requires final actions to happen in open session.

Question 23

Can a public body limit who is allowed to speak during public comment?

Accepted Answer

Generally no — restricting public comment to residents only, or to items already on the agenda, has repeatedly been found to violate section 2.06(g) of OMA.

Question 24

Can a board cut off a speaker's public comment time?

Accepted Answer

Not if it's inconsistent with the board's own adopted public comment rules — PAC found a violation where a city council didn't allow a requester to complete his allotted comment time at one meeting, while finding no violation for a separate meeting where different rules applied.

PAC Determination 2020-56926

Read the source:The requester alleged that the City Council inconsistently enforced rules and prevented…

Question 25

Can a public body require me to give my home address before I'm allowed to speak?

Accepted Answer

No — requiring a home address as a condition of exercising the right to public comment has been found to violate OMA.

Question 26

Can a public body enforce a time limit on public comment that isn't written down anywhere?

Accepted Answer

No — comment restrictions have to be formally adopted in the body's own bylaws or policies; an unwritten, ad hoc limit isn't enforceable.

Question 27

Can a public body require citizens to sign up to speak several days in advance?

Accepted Answer

PAC has found that requiring sign-up several days ahead of the meeting creates an unreasonable barrier to public participation.

Question 28

Can a board member participate in a meeting by phone or video instead of in person?

Accepted Answer

Sometimes — but it usually requires a specific vote or a properly declared public health emergency, depending on when the meeting occurred. PAC found no violation where a village board permitted audio-conference participation under its adopted rules. But PAC found a violation where a board allowed remote participation without the required formal vote.

Question 29

Was it improper for a body to meet remotely during the COVID-era public health emergency rules?

Accepted Answer

Not inherently — but the specific procedural requirements for declaring and conducting a remote meeting under the public-health-emergency provisions still have to be followed. PAC found violations where a city council and a village board of trustees both held improper remote meetings during a declared public health emergency without meeting those requirements.

Public Access Opinions 22-003 and 22-007 (2022)

Read the source:The accessibility and public participation requirements for a remote City Council meeting…

Question 30

How quickly does a board have to approve its meeting minutes?

Accepted Answer

Within 30 days of the meeting, or by the second subsequent regular meeting, whichever is later.

Question 31

What has to be included in meeting minutes?

Accepted Answer

At minimum, the date/time/place, members present and absent, and a summary of discussion and votes on all matters. A board that approved minutes late and left out required content was found to have committed two separate violations.

PAC Determination 2018-50418

Read the source:The adequacy of agenda notice for 'Payment of Bills' and the timeliness and content of…

Question 32

Can I get closed-session minutes through a FOIA request?

Accepted Answer

You can ask, but a public body may properly withhold closed-session minutes and recordings it hasn't yet released, or that remain otherwise exempt — this overlapping FOIA/OMA exemption is well established.

Question 33

Does the public have the right to record an open meeting?

Accepted Answer

Yes — OMA guarantees this right, and a public body can't enforce an internal rule requiring advance notice before someone records.

Question 34

Does a quorum of board members showing up at the same public event automatically count as an illegal meeting?

Accepted Answer

No — mere attendance at a public forum or social event isn't a "meeting" under OMA unless the members actually deliberate on public business among themselves while there.

Question 35

If a quorum meets privately to discuss public business but doesn't vote on anything, is that still a violation?

Accepted Answer

Yes — a meeting is defined by deliberation on public business, not by whether a final vote happens. A quorum discussing public business without notice, an open setting, or minutes violates OMA even with no vote taken.

Question 36

Is there a minimum number of members for an informal gathering to count as a "meeting"?

Accepted Answer

The threshold is lower than most people assume. Under section 1.02, a "meeting" is a gathering of a majority of a quorum of the members — not a full quorum. (The full-quorum threshold applies only to 5-member bodies, where 3 members are a quorum.) So on a larger board, a gathering well short of a quorum can still be a meeting. PAC has found that two members of a larger committee attending a session, below even a majority of a quorum, didn't trigger OMA.

PAC Determination 47674

Read the source:The matter concerned whether joint sessions between university board members and…

Question 37

Can police withhold an entire incident or arrest report?

Accepted Answer

Not automatically, and not in full — withholding an entire report without properly applying a specific exemption has repeatedly been found to be an improper denial. But a request submitted before responsive records existed, or before an investigation concluded, may not be improperly denied at that time.

Question 38

Can a police department withhold records just by asserting they'd "interfere with an investigation"?

Accepted Answer

No — the department has to actually show, with evidence, that disclosure would cause real harm to a specific investigation; a bare assertion isn't enough to sustain the exemption.

Question 39

Can police withhold body-worn camera footage by citing the Body Camera Act itself?

Accepted Answer

No — the Law Enforcement Officer-Worn Body Camera Act doesn't provide an independent basis to withhold footage from a FOIA requester; footage still has to be evaluated under FOIA's own exemptions.

Question 40

Can a public body withhold 9-1-1 recordings just because there's an ongoing investigation?

Accepted Answer

No — the existence of an investigation alone isn't a valid basis; a specific FOIA exemption still has to actually apply and be justified.

Question 41

Can a police department cite the Juvenile Court Act to withhold an entire traffic accident report?

Accepted Answer

No — PAC has found that the Juvenile Court Act doesn't serve as a blanket basis for withholding an otherwise-public accident report.

Question 42

Are crime statistics and accident reports involving public officials subject to disclosure?

Accepted Answer

Generally yes — PAC has repeatedly ordered release of crime-report statistics and accident reports involving public officials or police personnel where no specific exemption was properly justified.

Question 43

Can police withhold post-mortem or autopsy photographs from the deceased's family?

Accepted Answer

Not based on generalized privacy concerns alone — PAC ordered release to the executor of an estate in one such case.

Question 44

Can a public body withhold employee emails or internal communications as "deliberative"?

Accepted Answer

Only if it can show the records are genuinely pre-decisional and deliberative — a blanket claim isn't enough. PAC found improper denials where an agency withheld records without establishing they were pre-decisional, and where a school district withheld emails without showing they were exempt in their entirety.

Question 45

Are a public employee's résumé and job application public records?

Accepted Answer

Yes — they must be released, though specific private details like a Social Security number or home address may be redacted. The document as a whole isn't exempt just because parts of it are.

Question 46

Are public employee salary, wage, and bonus figures subject to disclosure?

Accepted Answer

Yes — compensation information for public employees is a matter of public record.

Question 47

Can a public body withhold the identities of employees accused of misconduct?

Accepted Answer

No — the public interest in transparency about employee misconduct has been found to outweigh the privacy interest in most cases.

Question 48

Can a public body withhold employee photographs as "private information"?

Accepted Answer

No — PAC has found that simply labeling employee photographs "private" doesn't make them exempt.

Question 49

Are there any circumstances where a public body can keep employee identities confidential?

Accepted Answer

Yes, narrowly — where a specific statute exempts identity information for employees in certain bargaining-unit positions, that specific exemption controls.

Question 50

Is there a blanket exemption for law enforcement or investigatory files?

Accepted Answer

No. The law-enforcement exemption is section 7(1)(d), and it is not blanket — it covers records created in the course of administrative enforcement proceedings or held by a law enforcement agency for law enforcement purposes, but "only to the extent that" disclosure would cause one of several specific enumerated harms (interfering with pending proceedings, revealing a confidential source, endangering someone's safety, and so on). The public body has to identify the specific harm for the specific records. A different exemption, section 7(1)(f), covers preliminary drafts and deliberative material — that one is not about law enforcement, and PAC has upheld properly-supported 7(1)(f) withholdings in that separate context.

PAC Determination 2017-26247

Read the source:The request sought records and communications concerning the use of animals in the School…

Question 51

Can a public body invoke attorney-client privilege to withhold a record wholesale?

Accepted Answer

Only for the portions that are actually legal advice — if a document is mostly factual with only some legal-advice content, the factual parts still have to be released.

Question 52

Are employee disciplinary records — terminations, reinstatements — exempt from FOIA?

Accepted Answer

Only partly. Section 7(1)(n) exempts records relating to a public body's adjudication of employee grievances or disciplinary cases — but it says expressly that "this exemption shall not extend to the final outcome of cases in which discipline is imposed." So the internal adjudication file may be withheld, while the final outcome of a case where discipline was actually imposed must be disclosed. PAC has upheld withholding in at least one university-employee matter, but that was a non-binding determination turning on its own facts, not a general rule that discipline outcomes are exempt.

PAC Determination 40002

Read the source:The request sought employment, termination, and reinstatement records for a university…

Question 53

Can a public body withhold draft contract language during ongoing union negotiations?

Accepted Answer

Yes — draft bargaining proposals and preliminary contract language tied to active collective bargaining are exempt under section 7(1)(p).

Question 54

Can a public body withhold its internal audit manual?

Accepted Answer

PAC has found this permissible where necessary to protect the integrity of tax-enforcement standards or similar regulatory processes.

Question 55

Can a public body withhold an entire legal invoice because part of it is privileged?

Accepted Answer

No — only the genuinely privileged portions (e.g., specific legal-strategy narrative) can be redacted; billing rates, hours, and general service descriptions have to be disclosed so the public can see how public funds are being spent.

Question 56

Can a public body redact parts of a record it decides the requester doesn't "need"?

Accepted Answer

No — if a document is responsive, the whole document has to be produced unless a specific legal exemption actually applies to a specific part of it. A public body doesn't get to unilaterally decide relevance.

on-site record #8

Read the source:The District redacted portions of requested letters that it deemed irrelevant or outside…

Question 57

Are financial terms in government contracts — pricing, hourly rates — redactable?

Accepted Answer

No — these terms document how public funds are spent and are not exempt.

Question 58

Can a public body redact municipal utility customers' names and addresses?

Accepted Answer

No — PAC has found that basic utility customer identifying information doesn't qualify as "private information" under FOIA.

Question 59

Can compensation and bonus figures be redacted from a public employee's contract?

Accepted Answer

No — this financial information in a public employment contract is not exempt from disclosure.

Question 60

If a public body outsources work to a private contractor, are the contractor's records public?

Accepted Answer

Yes, if the contractor is performing a government function — those records are treated as public records of the body, and the body can't pass along the contractor's own search/retrieval costs to the requester.

Question 61

Are text messages and emails about public business subject to FOIA if sent from a personal account or device?

Accepted Answer

Yes — using a personal phone or private email account doesn't take public-business communications outside FOIA's reach.

Question 62

Can a public body redact the names of a contractor's employees from certified payroll records on a public project?

Accepted Answer

No — names on certified payroll for publicly funded projects are public information.

Question 63

Are federal agencies subject to Illinois FOIA?

Accepted Answer

No — Illinois FOIA reaches Illinois state and local government bodies; federal agencies aren't "public bodies" under the Act.

Question 64

Is a private non-profit a "public body" just because it publishes some information or gets some public funding?

Accepted Answer

Generally no — being a private non-profit doesn't automatically make an entity a "public body," even where it discloses information in its own tax filings.

Frequently Asked Questions

FOIA — Records Requests

Making a Request & Response Deadlines

Deadlines & Fees

Police & Investigatory Records

Personnel & Employment Records

FOIA Exemptions

Redactions & Partial Withholding

Contractor-Held & Electronic Records

"Recurrent Requester" & Burdensome Requests

OMA — Open Meetings

Meeting Notice & Agendas

Closed Sessions

Public Comment

Remote / Electronic Meetings

Meeting Minutes

Recording Meetings

What Counts as a "Meeting" (Quorum & Informal Gatherings)

Applies to Both FOIA and OMA

Who Has to Follow FOIA and OMA ("Public Bodies")