Section 3001.210  Types of Responses to Requests for Public Records

a)         The Freedom of Information Officer shall respond to a request for public information in writing, in one of three ways:

1)         Approve the request.

2)         Approve in part and deny in part.

3)         Deny the request.

b)         The response shall be signed by the Freedom of Information Officer.

c)         Upon approval of a request for public records, the Freedom of Information Officer shall either provide the materials immediately, give notice that materials shall be made available upon payment of reproduction costs, give notice of the time and place for inspection of records, or request that the requestor contact the Freedom of Information Officer to schedule a time and place for the inspection of records.

d)         Categorical requests considered by the Freedom of Information Officer to be unduly burdensome shall be denied pursuant to Section 3(f) of FOIA.  Before making this determination, the Freedom of Information Officer shall provide an opportunity to the requestor to confer and reduce the request to manageable proportions.  The Freedom of Information Officer shall consider a request to be unduly burdensome if the burden on the Office of the Board outweighs the public interest in the information. Repeated requests for the same public records by the same person shall be deemed unduly burdensome pursuant to Section 3(f) of FOIA.

e)         A denial of a request for public records shall be made in writing and shall state the reasons for the denial and the names and titles of the individuals responsible for the decision pursuant to Section 9(a) of FOIA.  Denials of requests determined to be unduly burdensome shall also explain the extent to which compliance with the request would unduly burden the operations of the Office of the Board pursuant to Section 3(f) of FOIA. Each notice of denial shall inform the requestor of his/her right to appeal to the Executive Director [5 ILCS 140/9].

f)         Failure to respond to a written request within 7 working days after its receipt by the Office of the Board shall be considered by the requestor to be a denial of the request [5 ILCS 140/3(c)].