Cumberland Co. (ECWd) –
In January of 2016, we attended the Neoga School District Board meeting to expose the fact the Board had violated the Open Meetings Act by failing to properly post the agenda for the meeting. The article which includes my public comment at that meeting can be viewed at this link. After much contention and pushback from supporters of the school board, numerous folks took to Facebook claiming the School Administration had assured them there was no Open Meetings Act violation.
Once again, the Attorney General Public Access Counselor (PAC) has issued their opinion confirming they did, in fact, violate the Open Meetings act as it relates to posting of the meeting in question as well as failing to have posted their annual meeting dates, just as we claimed.
“For the reasons that follow, the Public Access Bureau concludes that the Board of Education ( Board) of Neoga Community Unit School District No. 3( District) violated the requirements of OMA in connection with posting notice of its January 20, 2016, meeting on its website and posting an annual schedule of its regular
meetings,”
Can anyone explain why we are able to comprehend and apply the law related to Open Meetings Act obligations yet School Administrators drawing healthy taxpayer funded paychecks continue to get it wrong? Not only is this an Administrator problem, I think it’s safe to assume the mandated training for School Board members is clearly not working.
Thanks for the PAC’s response to this request for review……….20 months later!
To those who claimed the School Superintendent told you there was no violation, let this be a lesson not to be so quick to believe what public officials tell you when they are being accused of wrong doing, as this once again proves any such claim to be false.
You can download the opinion at this link or view below.
AG Opinion on improper posting.
2 Comments
Warren J. Le Fever
Posted at 10:03h, 03 AugustAnother local area (eastern mid downstate IL) public body violating the Open Meetings Act by simply not following the simplest of rules shows the lack of concern about following state laws. Why bother if any AG response takes 20 months? The situation would be greatly helped if the IL AG PAC would handle complaint matters in one (1) month instead of 20 months.
J. Madison
Posted at 13:53h, 02 AugustOne can but wonder what these school district has to hide? Maybe now the Watchdogs will find out. I recall not long ago a school superintendent using their district’s credit card to buy food and gas for their personal, non business related purposes. Oh well, this is Illinois after all.