Section 651.350  Voluminous Requests

a)         Notwithstanding any provision of FOIA to the contrary, the Office of the Treasurer shall respond to a voluminous request within 5 business days after receipt. The response shall notify the requester:

1)         that the Office of the Treasurer is treating the request as a voluminous request;

2)         the reasons why the Office of the Treasurer is treating the request as a voluminous request;

3)         that the requester must respond to the Office of the Treasurer within 10 business days after the Office of the Treasurer’s response was sent and specify whether the requester would like to amend the request in such a way that the Office of the Treasurer will no longer treat the request as a voluminous request;

4)         that if the requester does not respond within 10 business days or if the request continues to be a voluminous request following the requester's response, the Office of the Treasurer will respond to the request and assess any fees the Office of the Treasurer charges pursuant to Section 651.520;

5)         that the Office of the Treasurer has 5 business days after receipt of the requester's response or 5 business days from the last day for the requester to amend his or her request, whichever is sooner, to respond to the request;

6)         that the Office of the Treasurer may request an additional 10 business days to comply with the request;

7)         of the requester's right to review of the Office of the Treasurer’s determination by the Public Access Counselor and provide the address and phone number for the Public Access Counselor;

8)         that if the requester fails to accept or collect the responsive records, the Office of the Treasurer may still charge the requester for its response pursuant to Section 6 of the Act and Section 651.520 of this Part and the requester's failure to pay will be considered a debt due and owing to the Office of the Treasurer and may be collected in accordance with applicable law.  (Section 3.6(a) of FOIA)

b)         The Office of the Treasurer shall provide a person making a voluminous request 10 business days from the date the Office of the Treasurer’s response pursuant to subsection (a) is sent to amend the request in such a way that the Office of the Treasurer will no longer treat the request as a voluminous request.

c)         If a request continues to be a voluminous request following the requester's response under subsection (b) of Section 3.6(b) of the Act or the requester fails to respond, the Office of the Treasurer shall respond within the earlier of 5 business days after it receives the response from the requester or 5 business days after the final day for the requester to respond to the Office of the Treasurer’s notification under this subsection. The response shall:

1)         Provide an estimate of the fees to be charged, which the Office of the Treasurer may require the person to pay in full before copying the requested documents;

2)         Deny the request pursuant to one or more of the exemptions set out in Sections 7 and 7.5 of FOIA or this Part;

3)         Notify the requester that the request is unduly burdensome and extend an opportunity to the requester to attempt to reduce the request to manageable proportions; or

4)         Provide the records requested.

d)         The time for response by the Office of the Treasurer under subsection (c) may be extended by the Office of the Treasurer for not more than 10 business days from the final day for the requester to respond to the Office of the Treasurer’s notification under subsection (c) of this Section for any of the reasons provided in subsection (e) of Section 3 of FOIA or Section 651.410(b). The requester and the Office of the Treasurer may agree in writing to extend the time for compliance for a period to be determined by the parties. If the requester and the Office of the Treasurer agree to extend the period for compliance, a failure by the Office of the Treasurer to comply with any previous deadlines shall not be treated as a denial of the request for the records.

e)         If a requester does not pay a fee charged pursuant to Section 651.520 for a voluminous request, the debt shall be considered a debt due and owing to the Office of the Treasurer and may be collected in accordance with applicable law. This fee may be charged by the Office of the Treasurer even if the requester fails to accept or collect records the Office of the Treasurer has prepared in response to a voluminous request. (Section 3.6(e) of FOIA)

(Source:  Added at 46 Ill. Reg. 1635, effective January 7, 2022)