Darien Aldermen Did Something Unusual: They Closed The Doors

DARIEN, IL – At the end of their meeting Monday, Darien aldermen voted to go behind closed doors to discuss the personnel.

Going into closed session is unusual for the City Council.

Over the last two years, aldermen have closed the doors four times, according to meeting minutes. Those meetings total an hour and a half.

Compare that to the board for Hinsdale High School District 86. Members met behind closed doors for nearly an hour and a half at their Jan. 29 meeting. That is not out of the ordinary for school districts.

Last summer, Patch analyzed percentages of the time that three school boards met behind closed doors over the previous year – Lyons Township High School (28 percent), District 86 (29 percent) and Elmhurst School District 205 (43 percent).

Around the same time, Patch found the Darien council was at 1 percent. Most municipal boards spend far less time than their school counterparts in closed sessions.

At Monday's council meeting, Mayor Joseph Marchese asked for a vote to go into closed session. But he did not state the exception under the state's Open Meetings Act, which requires most business be conducted in public.

Under the act, the city was supposed to have given the reason at the time of the vote. The justification, however, was listed in the meeting agenda.

In an email to Patch, City Administrator Bryon Vana said, "We must have missed citing the purpose when motioning to go into executive session."

He said he would inform the city clerk, who drafts the meeting minutes.