Evanston City Council Votes To Take FOIA System Offline, Reconsider Clerk's Role

EVANSTON, IL –Evanston aldermen decided to take the city's Freedom of Information Act database offline and consider taking responsibility for handling public records requests away from the city clerk after they expressed concern over whether confidential information had been posted on the site. A verbal motion to remove FOIA archives from public viewing and explore if the city should name a new FOIA officer passed 6-2 at Monday's City Council Meeting, with 5th Ward Alderman Robin Rue Simmons and 9th Ward Alderman Cicely Fleming voting against. Alderman Tom Suffredin of the 6th Ward was absent.

Alderman Don Wilson, who represents the 4th Ward and introduced the measure, said Evanston's NextRequest open-data portal revealed the identity of a sexual assault victim and a juvenile arrestee when requests were filed containing their names.

The NextRequest system was launched in February 2016 to expedite Evanston's FOIA response by viewing most requests for records and many of the city's responses. Then-Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl said the service would "make valuable City information even more accessible to residents while conserving staff time and City resources." Displaying previous requests may prevent duplicate requests and increases transparency, but Wilson said it was inappropriate to release some public records to anyone but the requester.

The NextRequest archive of more than 1,000 public records requests was hidden from public viewing Tuesday. Requests are now only visible to requesters themselves.

Because information in requests can be accessed in search results, Wilson said people who file requests may not realize that their requests and the city's responses would be made public.

"I don't think its reasonable to, without the person's knowledge, post the request and post the response on the internet where it can be found in a Google search," he said Monday. "It's outrageous and I think we need to take immediate action to take it offline for the moment until we can purge any information that's on there."

Wilson contacted Clerk Devon Reid last week and asked him privately to remove information from multiple requests. In one request, police documents were sought concerning a person named in a request, and when the records were released, they indicated the person had been the victim of a sexual assault. Reid said he addressed the issue as soon as Wilson brought it to his attention and before the meeting.

In the other incident in question, the father of an Evanston 12-year-old filed a request for police records about a well-publicized incident in which his son was arrested and accused of riding a bicycle illegally. The boy and his father spoke publicly at a previous City Council meeting about the arrest, which sparked weeks of discussion in the community regarding racial disparities in treatment of juveniles by Evanston police. Reid did not take immediately that request down but instead first sought legal guidance on the matter.

"The purpose of the NextRequest system is to make the process easier," Wilson wrote to Reid. "Not to humiliate, shame or embarrass the citizens of our community." (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for Evanston — or your community. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

At Monday's meeting, Reid said he planned to make a series of changes to the system, including a one-hour embargo that would allow administrators to redact names from requests as they are closed.

Alderman Melissa Wynne, of the 3rd Ward, said she was "all in favor of FOIA requests." However, "when someone makes a request for a public document that becomes searchable on the web, then you've lost your privacy." She asked for a way to make sure requests would never be made public after being filed.

Under Illinois FOIA law, public record requests and the responses of public bodies are themselves public records and can be released, but there is no requirement that they be posted on the internet.

Aldermen also voted to look into naming a new FOIA officer to replace Reid as the party responsible for handling FOIAs. Deputy City Attorney Michelle Masoncup told the Council the previous clerk had been officially designated as FOIA officer but Reid, who was elected in April, had not. The issue of possibly designating someone else to be in charge of public record requests was referred to the Rules Committee.

Reid described the move as "a step back in regards to transparency" and suggested a new FOIA officer would not be as directly accountable to voters as his office, in a message posted Wednesday to the City Clerk's Facebook page.

"Let's be clear, this will put information that could potentially reveal unethical/illegal activity by city staff or elected officials, under the authority of an individual who either reports to elected officials or directly to the city manager," he wrote. "Having an elected official who's willing to partner with the community to locate public records is a valuable arrangement that truly represents Evanston’s progressive values."

He said his office has helped Evanstonians find a variety of valuable information, such as data on police misconduct data, juvenile arrest statistics and emails between public officials.

Watch the discussion at the Sept. 25 Evanston City Council meeting below:

_{Top photo: Evanston City Council meets Sept. 25 | Via City of Evanston}