Burr Ridge Officials: Limit Access To Public Records

BURR RIDGE, IL – Burr Ridge officials on Monday called for more limits on accessing government documents, saying some are abusing the state's open records law.

Burr Ridge police are on track to see a 10-fold increase in Freedom of Information Act requests this year, compared with 2021.

Other towns, including Elmhurst, are seeing the same trend.

Many anonymous requesters are believed to be seeking police body camera footage to post on YouTube for entertainment and profit.

On Monday, the Village Board approved a $30,000-a-year part-time records coordinator position to deal with the deluge.

So far this year, the police have received 71 requests. Many of the video requests require hours of redactions of images of victims and others, officials say.

For years, Mayor Gary Grasso and village trustees have blamed local critics such as Zach Mottl for burdening Village Hall with what they consider unnecessary requests for information.

At Monday's Village Board meeting, Grasso seemed to suggest a continuation of that pattern.

"We have our own resident who seems to abuse it, in my opinion," the mayor said. "The legislature needs to address these FOIA abuses. Here we go, we're spending more government money and having to create a position because of FOIA requests."

At the same time, Grasso said it was important for government records to be open to the public.

Asked for last year's FOIA costs, Village Administrator Evan Walter estimated "conservatively" that it cost taxpayers $100,000 for both Village Hall and the police station to handle requests.

Trustee Anita Mital said the excessive requests were a "gross waste" of taxpayers' money.

"I wish there was a way where the person requesting a FOIA had some skin in the game," she said. "They should first identify themselves and give a reason why they need that information."

Grasso said state law allows anonymous requesters. He said the village was "pretty confident" that the same person was making multiple requests under aliases.

"A citizen should put their real name on it absolutely and have the courage to say I want to see this for these reasons," the mayor said.

Under state law, a government body cannot require a requester to explain why they need particular information.

The legislature has been asked to look at changing the records law.

"Of course, the first reaction is, 'Oh, you're asking us to limit people's access to government,'" the mayor said. "So I understand why they don't want to do that, but it's becoming something they just have to make a decision on to give reasonable access."

After the vote on the position, the mayor told Police Chief Marc Loftus, "There's your relief."

In response to a Patch inquiry, Grasso said in an email, "My point was the police and administration – separately – receive many FOIAs, often anonymous or obviously fictitious, which only adds in my opinion to many superfluous requests that eat up significant staff time and tax dollars unnecessarily."