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Editorials
Make agencies pay for violating meetings law : Editorials : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisMake agencies pay for violating meetings law
| 5/31/2012
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What would our world be like if lawmakers did away with fines for speeding motorists? Imagine a world where the stiffest penalty motorists would face for driving well over the posted speed limit would be just a written warning. We believe it's a pretty safe bet to assume our streets and highways would become much more dangerous as many motorists-unencumbered by the threat of paying hefty court fines-would begin exceeding the speed limit.
That's essentially the situation we have right now in the State of Illinois with the Illinois Open Meetings Act (OMA). That's the law that requires local public bodies-from the local school district board to village board committees and commissions-to conduct their meetings in public. The law does allow the board to meet behind closed doors, but only to discuss a very limited number of topics. Importantly, the law prohibits officials from taking any votes during private sessions. All of balloting must take place in front of the taxpaying public the boards are serving.
Though the OMA has been in place for decades local officials frequently violate it, either by design or due to ignorance. We believe the indifference many local officials show towards the act is due is due to the extremely modest penalties they face for violations. As it stands right now, anyone criminally convicted under the act is subject to 30 days in prison and a fine up to $1,500. However, we can't recall anyone ever being criminally prosecuted in Kendall County for an OMA violation. If a judge rules a board is in civil violation of the act, the board can be enjoined by the court from making future violations; required to re-stage their private meeting in public; ordered to publicly release the minutes of their closed session; and have any final action taken in closed session declared void or invalid.
The prospect of a slap on the wrist by the county state's attorney or a judge for an OMA violation has evidently not made much of an impression on local officials over the years. For example, in 2007 County State's Attorney Eric Weis determined the Oswego School District Board was in violation of the OMA when it held a public meeting at a private office building in Warrenville. And just last month the board-now made up of a majority of new members--notified Weis they failed to make audio recordings of not one but five of their closed sessions-yet another violation of the act.
In both cases, the board faced no penalties beyond being told by Weis that they shouldn't let it happen again coupled with the public embarrassment of the violations being reported in the Ledger-Sentinel.
We believe a sure-fire way for local officials to take notice and abide by the OMA would be for the civil penalties in the law to include fines assessed against their agencies. For example, if the Oswego School District Board had faced the prospect of a $5,000 or $10,000 fine for holding that meeting in Warrenville, perhaps one of their members or their attorneys might have advised them against the idea. And in the event the board had been assessed a fine for holding that meeting, we would expect many local voters would be asking pointed questions of the board members at the next election.
Like speeding motorists on the highway, we believe the only way to get local public officials to slow down and take the OMA seriously is to hit their agencies right in the pocketbook.
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