CARLINVILLE, IL. (ECWd) –

At least that’s what Attorney Rick Bertinetti said during Carlinville’s City Council Meeting tonight.

When discussing the recent Opinion issued by the Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor’s Office, Carlinville’s Attorney, Rick Bertinetti, stated “…The Attorney General’s Office, whoever they got working up there at minimum wage in that office that renders these opinions…” – as to somehow diminish the city’s violation of state law, and the AG PAC’s interpretation of that law. Watch the video below at the 10:00 minute mark.

The City Treasurer, Jody Reichmann, (at 8:15 in the video) talked about how she thought the Mayor needed to go to these meetings (the Regional Water “concept”)…since she is the Mayor, but the other Aldermen didn’t need to go because the city appointed a representative (and they are “just” aldermen). We would like to note that the Mayor holds no special place in the various rights to attend this meeting. The entire city council has the right to attend, and the council is made up of the Aldermen and the Mayor – all of them.

To answer Reichmann’s question about the complaint – the Mayor was the third city council member to talk during that meeting, which makes her the one that created the illegal meeting, which discussed public business. The other two could have held discussions for hours, until the Mayor (or any other member of the council) decided to join in the discussion – which would create the problem.

Alderman Campbell said there are questions still needing answers. One of those is, of course, whether this non-profit can even happen as planned. We recently wrote articles detailing how a water district and a municipality do not possess the statutory powers to form, or participate in forming, a non-profit corporation to contract with for water.

Bertinetti also said (at 12:32 in the video) “Right, wrong, or indifferent, this council voted to a certain way, and whether it’s the right way or the wrong way, we owe it people to follow it through…” – Just to make things clear, this attorney, and apparently this Council, is determined to follow this thru even if it is the wrong thing to do…simply because they voted to do it.

At least they are choosing to do one thing right. They say they are going to post the meeting notices (for the Regional Water) according to the Open Meetings Act and apparently subject those meetings to the requirements of the Act.

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