GIS 
policy now in question: Company wants to use information it pays for as it chooses

MORRISON – Whiteside County may have to change the way it does business with companies seeking access to its online storehouse of real estate information.

Chicago-based NAVTEQ, a company agreeing to pay for the county’s geographic information system computer database, has rejected the county’s standard nondisclosure agreement, which forbids it from sharing the information.

The company wants license to use the information however it wants.

GIS affords database subscribers one-click access to a wealth of property information that was once scattered throughout the logbooks of several county offices. Most counties in Illinois, including Whiteside, offer the information online for a fee. Whiteside County charges $300 a year. Lee County charges $360.

Through GIS Web sites, users can find a property’s ownership, address, parcel number, assessment value, tax information, sales price, square footage, land acreage, and building characteristics – down to whether a house has a fireplace or central air conditioning – among other things.

But coming changes to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act might require the county to allow NAVTEQ to use the information however it likes.

That’s what Jim Duffy, chairman of the committee that oversees Whiteside County’s GIS office, told the Executive Committee on Tuesday.

The state’s attorney’s office is reviewing the company’s proposal, and officials expect an opinion before the December County Offices Committee meeting, said Daryl Drennen, Whiteside’s supervisor of assessments.

Don Craven, general counsel for the Illinois Press Association, said charging fees for information online that is otherwise available free of charge from county offices is questionable legal practice, but not unusual.

“This is an issue across the state,” Craven said in a previous e-mail to Sauk Valley Newspapers on a related topic.

“DuPage [County] wanted $5,500 for a copy of [its] database, Grundy $2,500,” Craven said.

An Illinois law that once allowed counties to charge for-profit companies may be gone when the changes go into effect, Duffy said.

“Evidently, just because they want to make money isn’t a reason we can restrict the information anymore,” he said.

Regardless of the state’s attorney’s opinion, Drennen stands behind the county’s authority to charge subscription fees.

“The county has a large investment in GIS, and this agreement would have no effect on the county’s ability to charge fees,” Drennen said.