Picky points about OMA

Yesterday a picky point about open meetings got resolved for me, and a new one surfaced.

The Illinois Open Meetings Act (OMA) governs meetings of "public bodies" (State, County, City, Village, Township, school boards, etc.). I had been curious about Executive Sessions and believed that public bodies should discuss information on its agenda of meetings as to which Exemption in Section 2(c) it would claim for meeting in private, out of the public view.

Certain matters can be (but are not required to be) discussed out of the public's eye, such as proposed real estate purchases (as is believed to be the case with Dorr Township), personnel matters (disciplining and firing employees), etc. Usually, the elected officials will want to duck out of sight to discuss details.

Officials are not allowed to make decisions in private. They must return to open session to make decisions. This hasn't always been the case.

In yesterday's call to the Illinois Attorney General's Office of the Public Access Counselor I learned that "Executive Session" doesn't have to be an Agenda item. Surprise! All the members of the "public body" have to do is bring that up, entertain a motion, and vote to go into Executive Session.

Hello, Legislators. You missed the ball here, and you should correct this!

A roll call vote is to be taken and recorded in the Minutes regarding the vote to go into Executive Session.

When that Session is over, then the members of the public body must entertain a Motion and vote, with the vote recorded, to return to Open Session.

Here's the kicker. If the (elected) members of the public body wish to take action (i.e., make a decision), then there must be a motion after returning to Open Session, and a vote on that Motion. And the Motion must be defined and specific, and stated in the Minutes of the open meeting. They can't just say, "Motion to approve what we talked about in private."

AND, here's the really important part, there must be an Agenda item for that motion and vote. This is omitted from most agendas. And this means that the public body is in violation of the Open Meetings Act.

The public shouldn't have to continually "train" the public body by closely monitoring how it does business. It's a good thing when the public does do this. And it will continue to do it, until the public body figures it out for themselves.