Joliet Township (ECWd) –
After discovering Joliet Township went into a closed meeting on June 11, 2019 to discuss Road District personnel, we requested the minutes and audio recording from that closed meeting.
After some delay, the minutes and recording were provided.
Generally, closed meeting minutes and recordings are not available to the public unless released by the Board, however, we alleged this meeting was in violation of the Open Meetings Act because the stated reason for closed session was to discuss Road District personnel. Those personnel belong to the Road District (a separate public body) – not the Township – and any discussion in closed session by the Township violates the OMA.
This recording gives us plenty of things to write about, here is one of them:
As Joliet Township Supervisor Dan Vera was refering to past Animal Control personnel in the meeting, he called animal control employees the “10 Little Indians” and took pride in firing all of them, one at a time, over a 2-year period.
Listen to it:
According to “The History of the ‘Ten Little Indians’” the phrase “intended to define Indians as “inferior” and “backward.” The song coupled the Anglo-constructed definition of “savage” with American Indian consciousness, but the ultimate legacy of this children’s nursery rhyme was the systematic murdering of Indians, leaving “One little Indian boy livin’ all alone”
Shameful.
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