River Forest Township About

FOIA Requests

Submitting a FOIA request 

All records in the custody or possession of a public body are presumed to be open to inspection or copying. Any individual person, group, association, or organization has the right to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to any state or local public body, including any city, township, or county office. FOIA provides that requests for public records must be made in writing. If one wishes to submit a FOIA request, a written request can be submitted to the Township via email or by traditional mail. The Township has 5 business days to respond to a FOIA request, starting the day after a request is officially received, and may remove “private information” from the documents.

Types of Records

The Township maintains a variety of Public Records including but not limited to:

  • Accounts Payable Invoices and Paid Bills (for 7 years)

  • Administrative Correspondence (for 1 year)

  • Agreements, Contracts and Leases (for 10 years)

  • Audit Reports

  • Bank Statements, Canceled Checks and Deposits (for 7 years)

  • Budget and Appropriation Records (for 7 years)

  • Insurance Records (for 7 years)

  • Legal Notices and Certificates of Publications (for 1 year)

  • Minutes from Meetings

  • Official Oaths and Training Certificates (for 2 years after termination)

  • Ordinances and Resolutions

  • Payroll Records (for 7 years)

  • Real Estate Records

  • Resignations (Appointments and Elected Officials)

  • Tax Levies (for 7 years)

  • Town Meeting Annual Reports (for 7 years)

  • Township Grant Records to Local Social Services Agencies (for 3 years)

Associated Costs

There is no charge for the first 50 black and white standard pages of information provided. Providing photocopy of additional records beyond the first 50 pages or of oversized documents is at $0.15/page.

Requested information will generally be provided at no cost electronically attached to an email or a link to a Google drive. Please note Section 8.5 of FOIA provides that a public body is not required to copy a public record that is published on the public body's website; rather, the public body must notify the requester that the public record is available online and direct the requester to the website.

For voluminous requests, as allowed by Illinois law 5 ILCS 140/6/a-5, River Forest Township hereby assesses the following charges:

  • $100 (for more than 4 megabytes of data not in a portable document format currently) 

  • $20 (for not more than 80 megabytes of data in a portable document format currently).

Per Section 5 of the Act, we require the fee to be paid in full before releasing voluminous data. For voluminous requests, please mail a check made payable to “River Forest Township” to River Forest Township (8020 Madison Street, 2nd Floor, River Forest, IL 60305) and the records shall then be released within 5 business days of receipt of payment.

Questions?

If you have more questions or wish to submit a FOIA request, please email the Clerk at [email protected].

You also have a right to contact the Illinois Public Access Counselor at:

Office of the Attorney General

500 S. 2nd Street, Springfield, Illinois 62701

1-877-299-FOIA (1-877-299-3642)

Fax: (217) 782-1396

E-mail: [email protected]