Governor Pritzker recently signed Senate Bill 243 (“S.B. 243”) into law. As introduced to the legislature, S.B. 243 was intended to amend the Open Meetings Act and allow alternative means of attendance for members actively serving in the military. However, through its legislative life cycle, S.B. 243 developed into a fairly comprehensive rework of both the Open Meetings Act (“OMA”) and the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”). There were a few minor tweaks to both acts: junk mail is excluded from the definition of “public records,” liability immunity for compliance with Public Access Counselor opinions was extended to public employees, two exemptions were added to cover criminal justice, nuclear records, and displays describing the public body, which must be maintained online. However, there were also a few notable additions to both statutes.

In addition to the alternate attendance provision, the amended OMA now allows for required OMA compliance training to be conducted in-house, through a course sponsored or conducted by an organization that represents townships. This is similar to other types of training that were traditionally conducted by the state, but that can now be conducted at a local level. The amended OMA also prohibits meetings from being conducted on election days.

The FOIA amendments take big steps in addressing digital security issues. Under this amendment, public bodies can now protect themselves from malware and other dangers of opening unknown email links and attachments. All FOIA requests must be clear on the face of the electronic submission. Further, the legislature added a human verification requirement that tolls the response time until verification is provided. If a public body suspects that a request has been submitted by artificial intelligence or another computer program, they can require written or oral verification. Once the verification request is made, the deadline to respond to the FOIA request is tolled. Further, if no verification is made in thirty days, then the request may be denied. In an ever-digital world, there has been an uptick in phishing scams, cyber-attacks, and bulk email blasts. Public bodies, trying to fulfill their duties under FOIA, have been left largely to fend for themselves. This new amendment gives public bodies more methods to defend themselves against electronic threats.

For more information about this article, please contact Alexander T. Myers at amyers@tresslerllp.com.

Alexander (Alex) T. Myers serves as an associate in Tressler’s Local Government and Litigation Practice Groups. His practice is primarily focused on civil rights litigation, tort litigation, employment litigation and counseling, matters arising from section 1983, and police misconduct. Alex’s legal background as a Deputy Attorney General for the Office of the Indiana Attorney General (OAG) encompassed numerous litigation topics across both state and federal courts. Click here to read Alexander’s full attorney bio.