Western Springs More Open With Records

WESTERN SPRINGS, IL — Until a few months ago, Western Springs was one of the few area villages that did not post online all the documents that board member receive for meetings. It only posted agendas and minutes.

In May, the village quietly changed its practice, providing members' entire agenda packets online.

The issue came to the forefront in February when a resident upset over the possibility of 5G antennas in town questioned why the board failed to post its agenda packets online like other towns.

Western Springs Patch later followed up with Village President Alice Gallagher about the issue. At the time, she said the village would take the matter "under advisement."

"I personally have no problem with providing the entire agenda packet in advance of our regularly scheduled board meetings," Gallagher said in an email. "The issue will be considered in due course."

Most towns include the documents for meetings on the parts of their websites for meeting agendas and minutes. But it's not so easy to find the records on Western Springs' website. The records are under "Board Packets" in the "Document Center."

The village uploads the meeting packet to the Document Center on the Friday before each meeting and posts an announcement and a link to the homepage of its website. The announcement is pushed out via email and text to "news flash" subscribers.

State law requires agendas be posted online, not the entire meeting packets.