Appellate Court greenlights use of public funds to create private businesses –

It looks to me like forming a private company with other entities is the issue here and does not fall in line with the reading of the statute. They can contract and associate, but is it legal for them to form a private company? Which may make them exempt from OMA? I don’t think so. It should all be transparent because of the use of public funds. The suspicions aroused by forming a private company to possibly avoid OMA may be exactly spot on. I see our governments increasingly wishing to hide their actions from the public.

Good grief. In reference to Ill. Const. 1970, art. VII, § 10(a), Justice Steigmann moves the reader for interpretive agreement by illustrating:

[For example, imagine a family visiting a public lake for recreation. Upon entering, a sign states in bold lettering, “Visitors to the lake may boat, fish, swim, and otherwise enjoy the lake in any manner not prohibited by park rules.”]

For certain, there are regulations (laws) that govern public use of a public waterbodies for which would not be written on such a park entrance sign. I, for one, cannot imagine a single family visiting a public lake to boat, fish, swim and otherwise enjoy the lake in ANY manner prohibited by state law, or site-specific park rules.

In the context of this appeal, instead of three, the sign would have to state (in bold lettering) FOUR recreational opportunities for the “family” to consider and “otherwise enjoy.” Boat, fish, swim, AND scuba, I posit for example.

Where I come from that’s called communism