by: Diane Benjamin
The Illinois Open Meetings Act isn’t very long. At times it repeats itself, which makes it even shorter. No matter how many times complaints are filed against the City of Bloomington for violating it, City staff and elected officials evidently have never read it or they make no effort to comply with it. Here’s the law, read it for yourself: http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=84&ChapterID=2
So, what did they do wrong this time? Last November a 2 day retreat was held, complete with the now infamous executive session which Alderwomen Judy Stearns felt was illegal. The minutes from that retreat are finally available, they will be up for approval at the January 27th meeting: http://cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=6221 (Start on page 105)
Funny thing is the minutes make no mention of going into executive session. In fact, the LAW requires a public vote to go into executive session! “Closed” means the same thing as executive session, just another way of saying SECRET meetings:
(5 ILCS 120/2a) (from Ch. 102, par. 42a)
Sec. 2a. A public body may hold a meeting closed to the public, or close a portion of a meeting to the public, upon a majority vote of a quorum present, taken at a meeting open to the public for which notice has been given as required by this Act.
Either the minutes are wrong and the vote to go into Executive Session was left out, or they didn’t vote! Monday night the Council will vote to approve the minutes. If they vote to approve the minutes as written, it will be proof they didn’t vote to go into Executive Session. If they are modified to reflect a vote it questions reporting by City Clerk Tracy Covert.
The minutes should have reflected a public vote and the time. They should also have reflected when the Open session was resumed. Since the minutes make no mention of the Executive Session, there is no record of it taking place. The Executive Session minutes will reflect what took place, but the Council normally votes to keep that information a SECRET.
Maybe instead of spending money on study after study after study, the City should spending money on getting trained to not violate the Open Meetings Act over and over and over.
More on the retreat next!
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