Minutes and the OMA

The village of Orland Park has a transparency problem.

The purpose of meeting minutes is to provide a public record of what was done; not what was said.

Listening to the audio or watching a meeting unfold on video isn’t the same as posting approved minutes. Minutes codify actions taken during a regular meeting.

In Illinois, under the Open Meetings Act (OMA), meeting minutes must be approved at the following meeting or within 30 days after the meeting, whichever is later.

This is true for all public bodies like Fire Protection Districts, school districts, park districts, etc.

Minutes from prior public meetings are routinely approved or amended following roll call at the next meeting.

Posting the minutes after approval (for regular meetings) must be done on the public body’s website within ten days after their approval.

When I submitted my Freedom of Information (FOIA) request back in January, I asked for the minutes for the Committee Meeting of the Whole (COW) from October 7, 2024, through the end of 2024.

The FOIA officer provided them and a link to them on the village’s website. It was also followed with a sentence reminding me that they are also available on the village’s website.

This used to be true.

I’m on the village’s website every day.

Not once per quarter or once per month…but daily.

I take screen shots of what’s there and of what’s missing.

Those minutes, from October 7, 2024, through December, along with the minutes from the Board of Trustees appeared no earlier than on January 16, 2025.

If we follow the OMA along the 30-day timeline, the October 7, 2024, Board of Trustees minutes, which were approved on October 21, 2024, should have been posted before Thanksgiving.

But they were not.

It took another two months before they were posted.

This is the pattern as of late. Why this is the new normal remains a mystery.

Minutes are not something that are posted when it comes to mind or when it’s convenient. They are on a schedule like everything else in government.