Wheeling, IL. (ECWd) –
During the June 19, 2017 Village of Wheeling Board of Trustees meeting, Trustee Ken Brady yelled out at young lady:
“We’ve Heard From You – Shut Up!“
This outburst of Wheeling Trustee Ken Brady comes just minutes after fellow Trustee Mary Krueger said people relinquish their First Amendment Right when it involves speech she doesn’t like (click here for article).
What he should have done in that situation was to let the Village President exercise his authority to control the meeting. Brady had no right to tell her to shut up, however, the president had the right to gavel her out of order and to ask her to refrain from further comment.
Later in the same meeting, he asks for a vote, and convinces the board to vote in favor of sending a letter, on behalf of the board of trustees, to local governments and other people in reference to “having faith in their employees” – the board later voted unanimously in favor of sending the letter on behalf of the board. This was an action taken in violation of state law.
This subject was not listed on their agenda (click here for agenda) for discussion or action, making the action taken by way of the vote, an illegal vote and a violation of the Open Meetings Act. Violations of the OMA are listed as crimes under Section 4:
5 ILCS 120/4) (from Ch. 102, par. 44) Sec. 4. Any person violating any of the provisions of this Act, except subsection (b), (c), (d), (e), or (f) of Section 1.05, shall be guilty of a Class C misdemeanor. (Source: P.A. 97-504, eff. 1-1-12; 97-1153, eff. 1-25-13; 98-900, eff. 8-15-14.)
The Legislature was pretty clear on that one…
Mr. Brady, we suggest you publicly apologize for your rude comment to the young lady and ask the board to publicly apologize for their willful and intentional violation of the Open Meetings Act. We will talk about the letter in future articles.
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7 Responses
The weird thing is that he said, “We have already heard from you” but the woman he is speaking to did not speak during the public comment at that meeting and his “shut up” was in her response to her raising her hand and saying, “may I respond” because the elected officials were addressing her by name during the “official communications” portion of the meeting and speaking directly to her but would not let permit her to respond. Weird.
Most people in our small Village had absolutely no idea what type of corruption was going on until the woman Brady yelled at exposed the former Village president for using the Village credit card for his personal meals and alcohol and using a Village vehicle for his own use and for use at his other job. She was successful in getting that president ousted, but unfortunately, she did not expose it all in time to allow other citizens to run for the three Trustee seats so this “shut up” guy got his spot because he was unopposed and barely no one voted. What an embarrassment to our Village to have have him behave so unprofessionally! What an embarrassment to the community as he is a member of the Knights of Columbus.
Good catch watchdogs. After viewing the Board discussion, even if drafting a letter to send was placed on the posted agenda at least 48 hours prior to the meeting, there was no second to the motion. While it’s admirable that the Village Board’s intention was to formally support staff, OMA still has to be followed.
The board members were silent in response to the concerns she expressed about the Village Manager at the June 5th meeting so it seems they took an opportunity to do so during the “official communications” portion of the June 19th meeting as you see on the watchdog post today. Context is everything, as they say. Go to the 27 minute mark of the June 5 meeting and perhaps you might see this “support of staff” in a different light. Here is the link:
I agree with Warren. These types of actions cause people to lose faith in government. I’m not sure whether people get into power and “feel” the power and think they can do whatever they want when they want. They need to reread the Open Meeting Act – though knowing it doesn’t say they’ll pay attention to it — if the can get away with ignoring it.
You’re gonna make Ken and Mary as famous as Ken & Barbie!
This is a REALLY GOOD EXAMPLE of HOW NOT TO ACT by public officials. Something to show schoolchildren why people have very little faith in government.