D205 School Board Violated Open Meetings Act: AG

ELMHURST, IL — Elmhurst Community Unit School District 205 was found to be in violation of the Open Meetings Act for a closed session they held last June, according to an Illinois Attorney General letter that was recently addressed to the district and the citizen who originally filed the complaint. The violation is connected to the discussion of a potential administrative reorganization plan that was mentioned during the closed session.

The letter indicating the board's violation was signed by Steve Silverman of the Public Access Bureau of the Illinois Office of the Attorney General. In it, the letter described the closed session — held on June 19, 2018 — as having included discussions on individuals employed by the district and the merits of the employees' performance, compensation and employment status.

All of that is acceptable to be discussed in the closed session, according to Section 2 ( c)(1) of the Open Meetings Act. But the board also discussed "matters such as the title of a prospective position and structural and financial comparisons to other school districts" according to the AG's letter. Those types of discussions are not permitted by the act's exceptions.

"Those topics did not directly concern the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific District employees. Accordingly, those portions of the Board's closed session discussion violated OMA by exceeding the scope of the section 2( c)(1) exception."

The district said it is reviewing the decision.

"The Elmhurst District 205 Board of Education is in receipt of the Public Access Counselor's non-binding opinion and is in the process of reviewing it," was the statement they provided to Elmhurst Patch on the issue.

The violation complaint was presented to the AG's Public Access Bureau by Edgar Pal, who this week told Elmhurst Patch that he has been following politics in the city, including the school board, for more than a year and that he "routinely" checks public bodies for compliance with the Open Meetings Act "because I feel that it is important for us to defend our rights to know what our local officials are doing."

"When I noticed last June that the Board had met in closed session to discuss the admin reorg, I was concerned right away that the discussion may have been improper," Pal said. "The Attorney General previously issued opinions on other violations of a similar nature, and in those cases, the Attorney General concluded that closed sessions are meant to discuss specific employees, not general organizational structures."

Pal credited the Citizen Advocacy Center and community lawyer Ben Silver with helping him determine the complaint had merit.

"I'm grateful to CAC for their work in empowering the Elmhurst community to be engaged in our local government," he said. "I'm also grateful to the Public Access Bureau for their work in enforcing the Open Meetings Act. This law is designed to protect our right to know, and it's important to hold our local officials accountable."

The Public Access Counselor has asked the board to provide Pal, and to make public, the verbatim recording of the portion of the closed session in question. The board meets next on Tuesday, May 14 at 162 York St. in Elmhurst.

"I hope the Board will do the right thing and vote to release the recording from the closed session, as the Attorney General's office has requested," Pal said.