Opinion ID: 2119520
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: disputed documents

Text: The information that remains in dispute is the cumulative pension of each former member of the General Assembly and the length of service of each former member. Defendants do not dispute that their records contain this information. Nor do they contend in this court that the records fall within any of the statutory exemptions set out in section 7 of the FOIA (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 116, par. 207). Their sole contention in resisting disclosure is that the appellate court erroneously concluded that the trial court did not release [this material] to plaintiff because [the material] contained information which was exempt from disclosure. Defendants maintain that the trial court properly declined to order disclosure of the disputed records since that information would require defendants to go through two different types of ledgers for each former member and create a new document. See Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 116, par. 201 (no duty is imposed on a public body to create a new record in order to comply with a FOIA request). Before turning to an examination of the records in dispute, we note, first, that the trial court never made the finding the defendants claim the court made. Second, the defendants' position seems to be that if information is located in two different places, producing that information involves the creation of a new record. Such a position is supported neither by legal authority nor by logic. We conclude that the appellate court correctly ruled that defendants must disclose all of the requested information. In the trial court, in response to the court's order to make a presentation to the court indicating the manner in which records are maintained by GARS, the defendants, on February 26, 1986, filed a memorandum (February memorandum). The February memorandum states that an annuitant ledger sheet maintained by defendants for each retired member shows the total benefit received for the fiscal year and the total benefit received  in other words, the cumulative pension received. A copy of one such ledger sheet was attached to the memorandum as an exhibit. We fail to understand how defendants can resist disclosure of the cumulative pension information. The information is maintained by defendants in the ordinary course of business and it is not exempt from disclosure; accordingly, defendants must release it to plaintiff. Defendants' contention that the appellate court erroneously relied on section 8 of the FOIA is meritless. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 116, par. 208 (where a public record contains both exempt and nonexempt material, the public body shall separate the exempt material and make the non-exempt material available for inspection and copying).) The appellate court correctly noted that the annuitant ledger sheets contain information that is not relevant to plaintiff's request  that is, information that was not requested by plaintiff. The appellate court further noted that some of this unrequested information may be exempt from disclosure on privacy grounds. The appellate court correctly ruled that if some of the information on the ledger sheets is not subject to disclosure either because plaintiff did not request it, or because it falls within a statutory exemption, the FOIA provides for such a situation in section 8. The record is somewhat unclear as to the manner in which the length of service information is maintained. What is clear, however, is that defendants have this information and, as we have noted, defendants do not dispute this. The February memorandum explains that certain GARS information is stored on computer tapes which are operated by and are in the possession of the State Employees' Retirement System (SERS). Each month, GARS submits data input sheets to SERS. SERS personnel enter the data on computer tapes, and GARS receives a monthly printout from SERS. This printout, according to the memorandum, apparently does not include the length of service information. However, the memorandum states that one of the items of information stored on computer tapes is months of service, but that, according to SERS computer personnel, a single program does not exist to print out such information for all annuitants. In addition, the active-member ledger sheets maintained by GARS show the months of service of each active member of the General Assembly. However, plaintiff requested months of service for each retiree, not each active member. Neither of the parties, nor the appellate court, addressed the question whether, assuming the information is located only on computer tape, defendants must prepare a computer program which would generate the months of service information onto hard copy. We have previously answered this question in the affirmative. Family Life League v. Department of Public Aid (1986), 112 Ill.2d 449 (in order to provide plaintiff with the requested information, defendant was ordered to develop a special computer program which would delete exempt information); see also Bowie v. Evanston Community Consolidated School District No. 65 (1989), 128 Ill.2d 373. It may be that a special computer program will not be necessary. Since GARS personnel prepare the data input sheets that are submitted to SERS, and the input sheets include months of service, it is apparent that GARS itself has this information somewhere. In sum, the length of service information is maintained by defendants in the ordinary course of business, is nonexempt, and thus must be disclosed. Disclosure of the information in no way involves the creation of a new record. We hold that the records reflecting the cumulative pensions and lengths of service of retirees must be made available to plaintiff for inspection or copying.