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Brenda Pryor Attends Lisa Madigan’s FOIA Forum at Kent Law School

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Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan and Brenda Pryor, Esq., flash smiles before the FOIA Forum starts at Kent School of Law.

On Nov. 4 at 3:00 PM at the IIT’s Chicago-Kent School of Law, in Chicago, the Illinois attorney general, Lisa Madigan, explained how the newly passed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) will strengthen transparency on all levels of Illinois government. Her office had crafted a FOIA because of the inadequacy of the 1980s FOIA.

Madigan’s audience at the FOIA Forum was heavy with journalists, as the forum is traditionally sponsored by such groups as The Headline Club and the International Press Club of Chicago. Bob Blackwood, former president of the IPCC, made a point of inviting IFT Field Representative Brenda Pryor, Esq., to this event.

As Madigan noted: “When the FBI arrested Blagojevich, we saw the climate change for reform and for FOIA.” Her priorities in creating the new law:

To close as many loopholes as possible, specifically eliminating the per se privacy provisions by creating a narrow personal privacy exemption. “The FOIA must be enforceable.”
The creation of a specific permanent position of Public Access Counselor (PAC) within the Attorney General’s Office.
In January 2010 when the position is created, the PAC will have subpoena powers and the ability to issue rulings binding on the issuance of contested information.
Madigan said the FOIA is “the most significant reform measure passed by the General Assembly and signed by the governor this year.”

Brenda Pryor, who had a brief conversation with Madigan before Madigan gave her address, is an attorney who frequently acts in a legal capacity for the Cook County College Teachers Union. Pryor was concerned if personnel files were now open to the public. They are, but the administration has the option of citing “unwarranted invasion of privacy” to the requester of the file and to the Public Access Counselor, whereupon the PAC will rule on the validity of the objection.

Pryor noted not only will faculty and support staff files be opened upon justified request but also so will administrators’ files. “If a series of complaints are evident in the administrator’s file, names of the complainants will be withheld but a pattern of abuse may seem evident. It could work out to our advantage in certain cases.” As Pryor noted, “We will see how these new changes in the FOIA play out in practice.”

It was SRO in the Kent courtroom; note Brenda Pryor at front row, left.

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