Central Illinois Gazette
The people's business done in secret
Posted by: Tom Kacich
Friday, April 24, 2009 7:55 AM
Last night's meeting of the Champaign County Board must have set some kind of record. Over the course of a three-hour meeting, the board was in executive (closed) session for about two hours.
Regarding four separate items.
Those of us banished to the hallway outside of the board meeting room heard what sounded like shouting at least twice during the closed sessions. And obviously, based on the length of the sessions, there was quite a bit of back-and-forth by the 26 board members present.
Yet when the board was in open session there was remarkably little debate. In fact, when the board approved an early (by two months) retirement for co-administrator Denny Inman, there was not a peep of debate. Not even a roll call vote. The public work was done in less than a minute.
Everything had been worked out privately and secretly and, apparently, legally.
The other three items discussed in executive session dealt with a worker's compensation case, some land acquisition and contract negotiations, we were told. I hope that's all that was discussed. But I have to wonder.
If the board was discussing other items in its closed sessions, it wouldn't be the first public body to do so.
Right, University of Illinois board of trustees?
Comments
File an open meetings act lawsuit to force the release of the closed session tape. We have already done that in DeWitt County for similar reasons and the tape from the January 2009 meeting is going to be released this week.
Posted by mattvarble on April 24, 2009 at 9:33 AM
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