PAC Finds Public Body in Violation of FOIA for Not Disclosing Termination Letter
The Public Access Counselor of the Illinois Attorney General's Office (PAC) issued a late binding opinion that did not make our year-end review of 2025 binding opinions, which we have summarized below.
In response to a FOIA request seeking a termination letter issued to former village clerk, a village entirely withheld the letter from disclosure pursuant to various exemptions under FOIA. Specifically, the village argued that several provisions of the Personnel Record Review Act (Act) prohibited the village from disclosing the letter in response to the FOIA request.
In its 16th binding opinion of 2025, the PAC concluded that the village improperly withheld the termination letter in response to the FOIA request. PAC Op. 25-016.
Although the Act permits an employee or their designated representative to review certain personnel records, the PAC determined that this right has no bearing on the availability of personnel records to third parties pursuant to FOIA. Even if the termination letter at issue was a record of disciplinary action taken against the former village clerk, the PAC determined that the Act did not require the Village to obtain the former village clerk’s consent before disclosing that letter to the FOIA requester. Instead, the Act merely required the village to give the former clerk notice of the FOIA request on or before the day that Village disclosed the letter in response to the FOIA request. The PAC also determined that the Act’s notice requirement to employees did not toll the village’s deadline to timely respond to the FOIA request. Therefore, the PAC concluded that the village did not demonstrate that the letter was exempt from disclosure under Section 7(1)(a) of FOIA.
Because the termination letter at issue did not contain any personal information which, if disclosed, would cause the former clerk a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, and the letter itself directly bears on the public duties of the former village clerk, the PAC concluded that the letter was not exempt from disclosure under Section 7(1)(c) of FOIA.
Although the village argued that the termination letter included its decision-making rationale for terminating the former clerk, the PAC determined that the village never conducted an adjudicatory proceeding pertaining to the former clerk’s dismissal, so the Village did not demonstrate that the letter was exempt from disclosure pursuant to Section 7(1)(n) of FOIA.
Post Authored by Eugene Bolotnikov, Ancel Glink
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