Originally posted by @Matthew Olszak:
Originally posted by @Justin Harding:
Hello,
I'm a newer investor and went down to Cook County RofD and Treasurer office (on clark in the loop) to get eviction, water shutoff and property tax delinquency listing. I started at the FOIA office and was shuffled around and sent from office to office and was essentially met with a bureaucratic stiff arm...I was told to go to 333 s state for water shutoff (which when I went they said they don't have such things) passed off between rooms and people for the other two lists without yielding anything. I'm wondering if anyone out there knows the most efficient way to go about acquiring these in digital .pdf form (preferably) with the least amount of hassle.
Thanks for any help.
Evictions - FOIA to the County Sheriff
Water shutoff - FOIA to City Water Department
Tax list - FOIA to the County Treasurer
Expect to wait a month or more to get a response. Your request has to follow the law as far as what info is included. If its too wide in range the departments may request a fee. Nobody at the offices/desks will be able to help you with this, you have to email or mail the FOIA officer for each department. Most of the time they can respond in the format you request (IE xlsx, pdf, etc).
Hey Matthew, thanks for the information. I actually made a FOIA request directly to City Water and was emailed back with:
RE: 19-FR-282
Dear Mr. Harding,
On behalf of the City of Chicago Department of Water Management, I am responding to your Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request received in our office on March 21, 2019 for the following:
“I am requesting a list (preferably an electronic spreadsheet) of all water shutoffs for the city of Chicago for the past six months.”
The City of Chicago Department of Water Management has no responsive documents to this request.
Please note that the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) requires the City to produce documents. See 5 ILCS 140/3(a) (“Each public body shall make available to any person for inspection or copying all public records, except as otherwise provided in section 7 of this Act.”). FOIA does not require the public body to provide answers to questions or create documents. In fact, 5 ILCS 140/3.3 provides that FOIA “is not intended to compel public bodies to interpret or advise requesters as to the meaning or significance of the public records.” In Kenyon v. Garrels, 184 Ill. App. 3d 28 (4th Dist. 1989), the Illinois Appellate Court noted that FOIA “does not compel the agency to provide answers to questions posed by the inquirer.”
Additionally, the information you are requesting is expressly exempt from FOIA pursuant to 5 ILCS 140/7(1)(b).
Specifically, 5 ILCS 140/7(1)(b) exempts from disclosure “private information.” Private information is defined in 5 ILCS 140/2(c-5) as “unique identifiers, including a person’s social security number, driver’s license number, employee identification number, biometric identifiers, personal financial information, passwords or other access codes, medical records, home or personal telephone numbers, and personal email addresses. Private information also includes home address and personal license plates, except as otherwise provided by law or when compiled without possibility of attribution to any person.”
To the extent that your FOIA request has been denied, you have the right to have a denial reviewed by the Public Access Counselor (PAC) at the Office of the Illinois Attorney General, 500 S. 2nd Street, Springfield, Illinois 62706, . You also have the right to seek judicial review of your denial by filing a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court.
What's your take? What did I do wrong?
