City Council - Special Meeting July 7

A Special Meeting of the Woodstock City Council will be held on Tuesday, July 7, 2009, at 4:00PM at the Stage Left Cafe, next door to the Woodstock Opera House.

The meeting is a Strategic Planning Workshop and is described in the Agenda published on the City's website as "a working session of the City Council and City Administration."

According to the Agenda, this is a public meeting, but no public comments will be entertained.

The City is probably sliding safely past the requirement of the Illinois Open Meetings Act regarding publication of the Notice of this Special Meeting by providing a link to the Notice and Agenda at the bottom of the home page (below the end of the Calendar); however, it would have been better to place this Special Meeting also on the Community Calendar in place of "No Regular City Council Meeting."

It's certainly possible that a resident or other interested party would examine the Community Calendar and believe that the City Council would not be meeting at all on July 7, and then learn later, after the fact, that the Council had, in fact, met on July 7. It's true that there is no "Regular" City Council meeting, but the Calendar does not include the Special Meeting that will be held.

I believe that the Mayor and City Manager want to avoid any appearance of lack of transparency in government. I think they are sticklers for observance of the Illinois Open Meetings Act. Hopefully, such an omission won't occur in the future.

Hint: perhaps all the Horses of a Different Color clutter could be removed from the Calender, so that important City business would be more prominent.