Should bosses be kept out?

When a court case or a hearing is conducted and an employee is required to testify, should that employee's boss be kept out of the hearing room?

To what extent might an employee carefully "choose" his (or her) words for responses to questions, if the boss is sitting right there? What if the boss is sitting there, staring down the employee? Will the employee squirm a little? Do you think the employee will be candid, clear, forthcoming, totally honest and complete with answers? Or will the employee be very, very cautious with responses?


And if that employee is later re-questioned and outside the presence of the boss, will the answers change? Either in that case or another one, but where virtually the same questions were asked? Is that what happened in a current case involving the McHenry County Sheriff's Department?

Recently, the Woodstock Police Pension Board met to consider further a claim by Steve Gorski, former sergeant of the police department. Steve was injured twice on duty. There doesn't seem to be much question about that. He was working, in a squad car, in uniform, having responded to an accident scene, when he was injured.

On the Pension Board are non-employees of the City of Woodstock and also police officers of the Woodstock Police Department, who definitely are employees of the City of Woodstock. What was the ruling of the Pension Board? That Steve was injured and would be awarded benefits, but that his injury did not occur on duty.

Huh? Hello? How did they come up with that?

You should be able to read the Minutes in the near future, but not yet. The most recent posted Minutes are of the July 27, 2010 meeting.

The next regular meeting of the Police Pension Board is scheduled for Tuesday, October 26, 2010 ....  Whoa! Wait just one minute! 2010? Did I type 2010 in error. No! Where are the Minutes of meetings for the last year?

And why are meetings held at the Woodstock Police Department Training Room? Guess it's time for another complaint about public meetings of City boards and commissions being held in restricted, secure locations that are not readily-accessible, OPEN locations, where anyone can walk right in. After several complaints a while back, the meetings of the Woodstock Board of Fire and Police Commissioners were moved from the police department to City Hall.

Back to the Minutes... Are there some violations of the Illinois Open Meetings Act here? A "public body" (ex., the City of Woodstock) is required to publish the Minutes of a board or commission on its website.

The last Minutes on the website are for the July 27, 2010 meeting.

Since that date, there are Agendas published for four meetings on November 2, 2010, and on February 1, February 8, and September 22, 2011. There has been sufficient time to post Minutes for three of those meetings, and the Minutes for September 22nd should be posted soon.

Watch for a change in location of the Police Pension Board meetings.