Behind Closed Doors: How Often For Elmhurst City Council

ELMHURST, IL — Government bodies can meet behind closed doors for limited purposes in Illinois. In the last year, the Elmhurst City Council held closed sessions a dozen times.

Patch calculated the amount of time the City Council spent in open and closed sessions during 2021. In that time, aldermen met for 50 hours, with eight of those hours behind closed doors, or 19 percent of the time. (Aldermen also attend regular committee meetings.)

Some open sessions can last hours, especially those involving controversial zoning issues. In other instances, meetings are quite short. In fact, the quickest open meeting this year was this week's — just 12 minutes.

In the last year, the Elmhurst Park District board met for 39 hours. (Minutes for the last two meetings are unavailable.) Of those hours, the board closed the doors for 10 hours, or 26 percent of the time.

The park board's closed meetings tapered off after members approved a settlement with a developer in late September. Under the agreement, the park board paid the developer $75,000 for land the company had paid $9,500 for. Before the settlement, the board often cited the exception under the Open Meetings Act for discussions about the purchase of real estate.

Under the Open Meetings Act, government bodies can choose to close their doors for discussions of specific personnel, union negotiations, real estate, and pending or threatened litigation, among other reasons.

In general, no law bars a board member from revealing what was discussed in a closed session. A Burr Ridge village trustee did so last year.

Government bodies are prohibited from discussing most business behind closed doors. In the last three years, the Elmhurst School District 205 board twice released closed session recordings after the attorney general found the discussions violated the Open Meetings Act.