Elmhurst Broke Law With Closed Meeting: Official

ELMHURST, IL – The Elmhurst City Council broke the law in 2020 when it closed its doors to discuss whether to extend a nursing home's special use permit, the state's attorney general says.

Earlier this month, the attorney general issued an opinion against the city. It urged the council to release the meeting recording and a verbatim transcript.

The city has yet to decide whether to divulge the information. The attorney general's opinion is not legally binding.

Last year, watchdog Edgar Pal filed a complaint with the attorney general about the council's November 2020 closed meeting. Pal said he did not find out about the session until a Patch story in April 2021.

At the time, the Elmhurst Extended Care Center, 200 E. Lake St., wanted to build an expansion, which neighbors opposed. But the construction work never began, even though the city approved the project in 2018. The city revoked the permit late last year.

Pal argued no exception under the state's open meetings law allowed the council to close its doors to discuss a special use permit.

The city, however, maintained it had a right to discuss the matter in private because litigation was "probable," an exception under the law.

In its response to the complaint, the city said the nursing home's lawyer, Scott Day, said in a conversation with a city official that the facility would sue if the city found the project was not "substantially underway." Such a finding would mean a revocation of the permit.

In a July 5 letter, the attorney general's office noted the threat of litigation. And it said the council could meet privately to discuss strategies, theories and consequences associated with a lawsuit.

But the attorney general said the closed session discussion focused on the permit itself, not the strategies and other aspects of litigation. Because of that, the discussion should have taken place during an open meeting, the attorney general said.

In April 2021, Patch obtained an email from City Manager Jim Grabowski to then-Alderman Michael Bram that noted the closed session about the permit. Patch wrote a story that included the email, which prompted Pal's complaint.

In an email Thursday, city spokeswoman Kassondra Schref said the city attorney was reviewing the attorney general's nonbinding decision.

"Before any recording may be made public, the City must make a determination that the recording no longer requires confidential treatment or otherwise consents to disclosure," she said. "Any future action which may be taken by the City will appear on a public agenda."

Over the years, Pal, a former Elmhurst resident, has prevailed over the city and other public bodies on government openness issues.

In 2020, Pal obtained the browser histories of City Council members during council meetings, but the city fought the release until the attorney general stated such records were public. Pal said he requested the histories because council members appeared to be distracted on their city-issued laptops during public input at meetings.

Twice, Pal has obtained recordings of closed meetings of the Elmhurst School District 205 board after favorable decisions from the attorney general.

In one case, the board moved into closed session to discuss its differences with the city.

Behind the supposed safety of closed doors, then-Superintendent Dave Moyer called the city "a jerk" and accused it of "shenanigans." Board members could be heard agreeing.