|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
Editorials
Where's our transparency in local government now? : Editorials : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisWhere's our transparency in local government now?
| 10/31/2011
|
The Oswego School District Board is currently considering hiring new legal representation.
As we reported last week, the board has received information from four law firms that have expressed interest in representing the school district, and updated information from the two firms that currently provide legal services to the district.
During a meeting Oct. 11, board members discussed the process they will use to interview representatives from each of the firms.
We were concerned, however, when at one point during the discussions board member Ali Swanson asked if the board could close their meetings to the public with the law firms "so we could throw some questions at them, real or not, to see what they are giving us...?"
Board President Bill Walsh said he believed the board could close the meetings with the law firms.
Fortunately, board member Dave Behrens questioned why the board would want to close the meetings to the public.
"We need to be talking to these folks in open session," Behrens said.
The Illinois Open Meetings Act does allow a public body such as a school district board to enter into a closed session to discuss the hiring of a law firm. However, just because the act includes that provision along with some other narrow exemptions, it does not mean the board is legally obligated to shut the public out of their meetings.
In hiring a law firm or firms for the district, we believe the board should keep its meetings open to the public.
To shut the public out of the interviews with the law firms will serve to invite speculation as to the board's motives: "What does the board have to hide? Why don't they want the public-including the school district's employees-to hear their line of questioning?"
In addition, interviewing the law firms behind closed doors would run counter to the call for greater transparency in local government that several candidates for school district board and other local offices voiced last spring prior to the April election.
Responding to a Ledger-Sentinel questionnaire last February, then candidate Swanson said, "I will fight to improve transparency regarding school district spending decisions. It is critically important that District 308 citizens and the local media have the opportunity to participate without needing to worry about backroom deals and conflicts of interest."
The hiring of a law firm is certainly one of the many spending decisions the board must make.
By keeping the interviews with the law firms open to the public so everyone can hear the questioning, the school district board will give the taxpayers they serve and whose money they are spending "the opportunity to participate without needing to worry about backroom deals and conflicts of interest."
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
