Attorney General Rules Rutland Violated Open Meetings Law
The Illinois Attorney General's Office ruled Friday that the Rutland Township Board violated the State's Open Meetings Act in October when it passed a controversial Investment Policy Ordinance last October and simultaneously replaced Supervisor Margaret Sanders as the Township Investment Officer with a single vote. The Attorney General said the Board should hold another vote about replacing Sanders for investments.
The First Electric Newspaper complained Rutland violated the OMA when its Oct. 14 agenda listed a vote to adopt the investment policy but not one on picking a new person to execute it. Board Attorney Ron Roeser of Elgin cited court decisions that "germane" action doesn't need a separate notice. However AG's attorneys agreed with FEN that an Open Meetings amendment last year outdated the old cases and now requires public notice "of all matters upon which a public body would be taking final action."
Supervising Attorney Josh Jones wrote, "The appointment of Trustee [Fred] Bulmahn was not a necessary result of adopting the Ordinance," continuing, "We agree [with FEN] that 'the two are clearly separate and distinct matters and should have been so noticed.'"
At last report, Rutland Township has enough money saved up to run for about a year and half without any new funds. While some townships in Illinois have written investment policies, FEN's been unable to locate any other with an investment officer different from the Supervisor.
Earlier this week in a bitter budget battle, trustees cut Assessor Jan Siers' requested new budget back from $186,000 to $162,000, saying a roughly 10 percent increase from the past one was enough. Siers argued that in a quadrennial reassessment year it wasn't. "I'm not going to cut salaries," she said. The Township budget this year was approved at $326,000 and the Road District's at $535,000.Posted by First Electric Newspaper LLC at 10:25 AM No comments :
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Sunday, May 17, 2015
Public Notice required on all matters being voted.
Gov. Rauner, who campaigned on transparency, now secretive | Belleville News-Democrat Belleville News-Democrat
By Kerry Lester and Sara Burnett
The Associated Press
When running for office, future Gov. Bruce Rauner regularly pledged to bring unprecedented transparency to state government as part of the Republican’s campaign to turn around the Illinois economy.
But now, as the clock ticks down on the General Assembly’s spring session, the former private equity executive is holding his cards especially close to his vest in tense negotiations with Democratic leaders over the pro-business reforms he wants in exchange for consenting to their demands on how to close a $6 billion budget gap.
For example:
▪ Most talks are being held by special working groups, but the meeting times, locations and topics are secret. Lawmakers involved say Rauner’s staff has demanded they don’t reveal what was discussed.
▪ Rauner has so far refused to let anyone see copies of legislation outlining his desired reforms, though he has publicly assured reporters the legislation exists, and more information is coming soon. On top of that, his legal staff has rejected freedom of information requests seeking the information.
▪ Rauner’s staff has consistently taken more than one month to provide copies of his non-public schedule in response to requests …