Freedom of Information Act Information (FOIA) for the Village of Downs

The Village of Downs (“Village”) handles all Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) requests in accordance with the applicable provisions of 5 ILCS 140. The Village has a minimum of five (5) business days following the receipt of a FOIA request to respond to FOIA requests that meet the requirements of FOIA. For commercial requests, the Village has a minimum of twenty-one (21) business days following the receipt of a FOIA request to respond to FOIA requests that meet the requirements of FOIA.
  
FOIA requests can be submitted in writing using the form available on the Forms & Applications Page to the Village in any of the following ways: 

• By e-mail directed to clerk@villageofdowns.org  
• By U.S mail directed to: 

• In person by delivering a written request to the Downs Village Hall addressed to: 

The following fees are applicable to any FOIA request for records, if the requestor is requesting that paper copies of the records be furnished to the requestor: 

Fees for All FOIA Requests

• First 50 pages, letter or legal-size copies, no cost. 
• Additional pages, letter or legal-size $0.15 per page. 

• First 50 pages, letter or legal-size color copies $0.35 per page. 
• Additional pages, letter or legal-size $0.35 per page 

• Thumb Drives 
• CDs 
• Color Photographs 
• Blueprints or construction documents  
• Records of a size larger than letter or legal-size 

• $1.00 per record

• First 8 Hours:    No Charge 
• Over 8 Hours: $15.00 per hour 

Fees for Commercial FOIA Requests 

• Up to 80 Megabytes: $20.00 
• 2 Megabytes to 4 Megabytes: $40.00 
• Over 4 Megabytes: $100.00 

The Village may in its sole discretion furnish records to a requestor without charge or at a reduced charge if the requestor states the specific purpose for the request and indicates that a waiver or reduction of the fee is in the public interest.

The Village reserves the right to require any requestor to verify orally or in writing that the requestor is a person in accordance with the provisions of 5 ILCS 140/3(j). The requestor is not required to provide personal identifying information to verify that the requestor is a person. In the event that a requestor who is asked to provide verification that they are a person fails to provide the Village will verification within thirty (30) days of the Village’s request for verification, the request will be denied by the Village.