Last year at this time I wrote how reading The Art Of Access: Strategies For Acquiring Public Records put some swagger back into my FOIA requests. Well dear reader, it’s a year later and I feel like I’ve lost that swagger.
I’ve done a lot of requests lately but I have gotten mainly no responsive records and a lot of 5 ILCS 140/7(1)(v) exemptions. It’s disheartening especially since I do this on the side of my regular job as a hobby and I don’t have the resources or time to follow up and appeal with every request.
That being said, I still have a healthy backlog of requests to submit and I’m going to post a few quick blogs about these FOIA trials and tribulations. No records is never a fun response to open, but I am still an ardent believer in accountability and transparency and will keep fighting the good fight.