Executive Report

Closing loopholes in the Open Meetings Act

ATTORNEY General Tyrone Fahner has proposed new controls to tighten the procedure by which elected officials conduct closed meetings in Illinois. Fahner's plan, however, still falls short of closing the biggest loophole in the state's 1957 Open Meetings Act which, in effect, gives elected officials the power to decide what constitutes a meeting. But the attorney general's proposal, which was announced October 4, is still in its preliminary stages. The final version will be introduced as legislation next spring.

Fahner says that the language of the present law is so ambiguous it requires the services of two attorney general staffers working full time to answer requests for interpretations. Defining what constitutes a meeting remains the big problem. The law is so vague on this point that few have successfully challenged it in court. Whether Fahner will try to clarify the definition apparently depends on a case pending in the Illinois Supreme Court, in which the lower courts have ruled that meetings need not be official to be subject to the law.

The major lobby for revising the state's Open Meetings Act is the news media which advocates a so-called "sunshine" statute which would open the doors of all meetings to the public and the press.

Fahner's recent opinion (80-024), which states that under the current law elected officials need not notify the public when they hold a closed meeting under one of the exceptions to the act, makes the proposed controls more significant.

Under the attorney general's plan, elected officials would still have the right to hold closed meetings (so-called "executive sessions") to discuss, but not to take action on: collective bargaining with personnel, land acquisiton, or pending legal proceedings. Officials would also retain the power to decide what constitutes the above matters.

Fahner's proposal, however, would tighten the procedure for calling closed meetings by requiring that the officials: (1) take the vote to hold the closed meeting while they are in session at an open meeting; (2) notify the public of the closed meeting, naming the kind of matter to be discussed; (3) keep minutes of discussions held during closed sessions.

Fahner's plan also sharpens the teeth of the law by clearly defining: (1) the authority of state's attorneys to take civil action against officials accused of illegally closing meetings; (2) the authority of judges to invalidate action taken at an illegally closed meeting; and (3) the rights of successful challengers to be reimbursed for their court costs. In addition, Fahner proposes that the public, as well as the news media, be allowed to tape proceedings at open meetings.

28/December 1980/Illinois Issues