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Illinois FOIA & OMA Reference
FOIADetermination Letter (non-binding)No violationFees & Burdensome Requests

City of The City's $20 fee for voluminous PDF records did not violate FOIA

The dispute concerned the appropriate fee calculation for a voluminous FOIA request for electronic records.

Date issued
April 25, 2024
Request number(s)
72599
Public body
The City
Statute(s)
5 ILCS 140/6
Outcome
No violation found
Read the original PDF

Plain-language summary

The requester challenged a $20 fee a city charged in response to a request the city had already determined was voluminous under FOIA's fee provisions for large requests. The PAC determined that because the responsive records were maintained electronically in PDF format totaling no more than 80 megabytes, the fee schedule for voluminous electronic PDF requests permitted the city to charge up to $20 for that volume of data. The city's fee did not violate FOIA.

Summary reviewed by a person

Legal question

Whether a public body's fee assessment for a voluminous request for electronic records in PDF format complied with the fee schedules established in 5 ILCS 140/6(a-5).

Holding

The City did not violate FOIA by charging a $20 fee for a voluminous request consisting of less than 80 megabytes of data in PDF format.

Issues decided in this letter

Each question the Public Access Bureau decided, with the rule it applied. Extracted automatically from the letter; the source PDF is authoritative.

  1. No violationFOIA section 6(a-5)

    FOIA fee for voluminous electronic records

    Rule applied: A public body may charge up to $20 for a voluminous request of electronic records in PDF format not exceeding 80 megabytes.

    Authorities cited: Ill. Att'y Gen. PAC Req. Rev. Ltr. 72265, issued July 13, 2022, at 4

feesvoluminous requestelectronic recordsFOIA costs
Reading view (427 words) — click to read the full text here

This reading view follows the source PDF's positioned text blocks. Page headers, repeated office furniture, and lower-margin notes are kept out of the narrative; source notes are available below. Reconstruction is automatic and imperfect — the PDF is the authoritative version, and it's linked on this page.

Section 6(a-5) of FOIA 10 further provides:

If a voluminous request is for electronic records and those records are not in a portable document format ( PDF), the public body may charge up to $20 for not more than 2 megabytes of data, up to $40 for more than 2 but not more than 4 megabytes of data, and up to $100 for more than 4 megabytes of data. If a voluminous request is for electronic records and those records are in a portable document format, the public body may charge up to $20 for not more than 80 megabytes of data, up to 40 for more than 80 megabytes but not more than 160 megabytes of data, and up to $100 for more than 160 megabytes of data. If the responsive electronic records are in both a portable document format and not in a portable document format, the public body may separate the fees and charge the requester under both fee scales. Emphasis added.)

request specifically sought copies of records " in their native format." 11 The City confirmed that the responsive records are stored electronically in a portable document format and would require the compilation of not more than 80 megabytes of data. The plain language of section 6(a-5) of FOIA permits a public body to charge up to $20.00 for records responsive to a voluminous request that consists of not more than 80 megabytes of data. Because this office has previously determined that June 7, 2022, FOIA request was a voluminous request, and because section 6(a-5) expressly permits the charge assessed by the City, the City's fees did not violate FOIA.

Very truly yours, SHANNON BARNABY Senior Assistant Attorney General Public Access Bureau 72599 f 6a-5 fee proper mun

Notes from the original PDF (1)
  1. 105 ILCS 140/6(a-5) (West 2022). 11E- mail from ] to [Scott Zak] ( June 7, 2022).

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