A column from NINA's Spring 2010 newsletter:
A nice piece of news found its way to DeKalb, appropriately enough, during Sunshine Week. Turns out, if you apply for a job as an alderman, the public gets to know that.
The cities of both Chicago and DeKalb argued recently that the names of citizens applying to fill aldermanic vacancies should not be made public. DeKalb’s city officials claimed that disclosure of these names – just the names, mind you, not phone numbers, shoe sizes or any other personal data – would constitute “a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy for applicants for an appointed or elected position.” Chicago took an almost identical position.
Let me see if I have this right. In the minds of these city leaders, people should be able to seek public office without the public knowing about it. Anyone see a slight problem there?
In DeKalb, both the Daily Chronicle and the Northern Star filed two Freedom of Information Act requests for the lists of names in the two wards with vacant city council seats. The city then referred those requests to the Illinois Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor, Cara Smith.
Smith’s response to both DeKalb and Chicago was basically: Knock it off. Here’s an excerpt from her letter to DeKalb’s city clerk:
“In this case, the City has failed to establish either that disclosure of the applicants’ names would be highly personal or objectionable to a reasonable person or that the applicants’ right to privacy outweighs any legitimate public interest in obtaining information about the people seeking appointment to this public office. City aldermen are public officials who represent the residents of their ward on the City Council. Once appointed, aldermen who wish to remain in the position eventually must submit valid nominating petitions to qualify for the ballot and be elected by voters of their ward. As a result, when this public office becomes vacant, citizens have a legitimate interest in knowing who has applied for the position so that they may evaluate whether the individuals are qualified to represent a particular ward and discern why one applicant was appointed over others. It is precisely this public scrutiny of public officials that the General Assembly had in mind in enacting FOIA.”
So, common sense and seventh-grade civics win the day. Sort of. The system still has imperfections, chiefly the time lag. The Northern Star’s first FOIA request, for names of those seeking one of the seats – was sent to the city Dec. 16, 2009. Smith’s response to the city was dated March 16, 2010 – three months later. At that point, the city released both lists of names. But in the meantime two new aldermen had been recommended by the mayor and approved by the city council, before the public ever knew the names of the other applicants.
The Public Access Counselor’s is a small office with a huge case load. We in the media understand that. That case load, though, may point to the real issue: a state whose political culture has encouraged anything but government transparency, and a citizenry that is fed up with it.
Throughout this disagreement, I never heard anyone suggest that DeKalb was hiding anything scandalous. What elected officials need to understand, though, is that when they withhold information with obviously flawed arguments, the public begins to wonder if they are hiding something.
Anyone can file a FOIA request, of course, but a FOIA from a news organization packs a much larger wallop, because of the likelihood that the whole community will see the results. When we use FOIA often, we’re placing our local units of government on notice that we’re paying attention.
NINA’s April 23 Spring Conference brings Smith and the Illinois Press Association’s Beth Bennett to NIU-DeKalb, to discuss the status of FOIA law reform in Illinois. Please come. Bring others from your newspaper, too. Our watchdog function is our most vital role, and FOIA is one of our most valuable tools. With the constant thought of keeping our communities informed, let’s not hesitate to increase the attorney general’s workload if necessary.
While cooking up lunch at NIU’s Nitrorun, Victor Diaz from Inbodens Meats, helps prepare the runners with a delicious after treat. 
Preparing for her next test, 3rd year student of NIU, Shannon Wapole, spends her rainy afternoon in the Law Library. 
Drumming instructer John Potter shows the auditioning, incoming freshman a para-diddle technique at the tryouts for the NIU drumline in the Music Building.
