Where are the meeting Minutes???

I have begun following the actions of the McHenry County Sheriff's Department Merit Commission and the Woodstock Board of Fire and Police Commission. These public bodies meet regularly and are subject to the Illinois Open Meetings Act (OMA).

Each Commission is to report publicly all decisions made. Each regularly holds Executive Sessions, during which they discuss personnel issues out of public view; this is permitted in the OMA.

At the conclusion of the Executive Session each must re-convene its open meeting and report decisions that were made in private. This is what is supposed to happen. At the next meeting Minutes are approved and then posted online for the public to view.

On September 8, 2008, the Board of Fire and Police Commissioners met. No Minutes have yet been published.

On October 21, 2008, the Merit Commission met. No Minutes have yet been published.

The reason?

Neither body has held a public meeting since, when it would have approved the Minutes of the previous meeting.

In the case of the Board of Fire and Police Commissions the only significant action was to establish the dates for the 2009 Regular Meetings. Because these Minutes were never approved, the 2009 Schedule of (Board and Commission) Meetings for the City of Woodstock does not include the Regular Meetings.

Instead, the 2009 Schedule of Meetings indicates that the Commission will meet as needed and directs one to call the police department telephone number to inquire about meeting dates. However, the Board of Fire and Police Commissioners met on March 2 and will hold Regular Meetings on June 1, September 8 and December 7. (A Special Meeting will be held today, March 12, at 5:00PM at police headquarters.)

And the Merit Commission? On October 21, 2008, the Merit Commission, which held (in my opinion) an illegal meeting because not one Commissioner was in the meeting room, voted to support the sheriff's decision to fire a deputy. That decision has never been formally reported, because the Minutes have never been approved and released.

The reason? The Merit Commission has not held a regularly-scheduled meeting since October 21.

The November 12th meeting was re-scheduled (advanced) to November 8. Why didn't it approve the October 21st Minutes at that meeting. Or did it?
The December 10th meeting was canceled.
The January 14th meeting was canceled.
The February 11th meeting was canceled.
The March 11th meeting was canceled.

Will the April 8th meeting be held as scheduled?

Have there been no disciplinary actions within the Sheriff's Department since October 21? Doesn't the Merit Commission take notice of lawsuits filed against the Sheriff's Department?

Commissions must find a way to approve Minutes promptly after meeting and release them to the public and the media. Minutes could be forwarded the following day to members of the Commission and approved by email consent.

Without that prompt release, there is high concern for transparency.