BLOOMINGTON, IL. (ECWd) –
Bloomington School District 87 has been violating the Open Meetings Act by demanding people reveal their home addresses in order to participate in public comment.
See examples of this unlawful demand by D87 (HERE, HERE, and HERE) – even demanding the addresses of children who wished to speak – all while knowing it is being videotaped and uploaded to various social media platforms.
The Illinois Attorney General has already issued multiple opinions, at least as far back as 2014, stating that requiring addresses to speak, or even to attend, during public meetings violated the Open Meetings Act.
“. . . the Attorney General noted that the plain language of Section 2.06(g) does not require that a person provide his or her address before he or she can speak. Moreover, a person’s right to comment at a public meeting under Section 2.06(g) is not contingent upon where he or she resides. Thus, the Attorney General found that requiring a speaker to disclose his or her home address before addressing the public body would have a chilling effect on individuals who wish to speak at public meetings—and, as such, is inconsistent with the Open Meetings Act.”
D87 should reconsider its unlawful requirement of providing a home address as a prerequisite for providing public comment.
Thanks to BLN News for the videos used in this article.
6 Responses
Correction: gag reflex
With this post and link to BLN News, I learned that BLN News censors BLN News consumers. I understand such censorship is done at the sole discretion of the BLN News author. Discovering such censorship amid the reporting of OMA violations and other school district issues triggered my gag reflect. I’m grateful that Illinois Leaks utilizes a comment filter that invites consumer engagement.
First Amendment=free speech,not approved,tracked,censored,pre-approved.Everyone learn thoroughly the Open Meetings Act and Govt. Sunshine Act as well as Foia procedures.Greg is correct in Not giving them the address.The rebuttal ahould be,I live on planet Earth,State of IL.,Bloomington.You work for me and other taxpaying local citizens of The United States of America,Not Russia or China.You sit on chairs uo there at the taxpayers allowance and vote.You are trying to inhibit my American and state right to freely give input to this meeting on my dime.I do not work for you,you work for me. Who is suing these clownclones and using foia??Stop delegating or giving up what Little power you have.Kwame is a posterchild puppet for nwo,d.state woketards and is Busy.She should be joining the multistate lawsuit against adrenochrome living Google-chrome=Adrenochrome.Wake Up people.Schoolboards are now being more obnoxious because many citizens have encouraged others to participate,challenge the illegal b.s.,and run for the seats.Library boards and other local governance needs to be Cleansed of the Insane Clownclone commie posse and populated by drcent,rational humans who care about their country,community,family,humanity.Watch the watchers.Get their addresses,socialmedia,licenseplates,Spokeo info.,geneaologic background,photos,recordings.Surveilance state goes both ways.Foia every last budget paper.Govt. Sunshine Act their other dics.Follow the $$.Get FECcampaign donors and amounts and whst those donor co.s make or sell!! 🙂
Hell yeah…without much doubt, it’s a mayoral legacy marker from the political science buffoon’s chair now appearing in a K-12 public education building. Guess what…controversial issues crop up from time-to-time…it’s kind of like death and taxes. It’s how the board addresses the issues that matters. And if D87 doesn’t like OMA compliance or their own street address, someone wishing to preface an in-person public comment in future meetings could inform the microphone’s GPS location, within a couple meters, anyway.
Public school boards in general are dictatorial, they are used to bullying students and getting away with it
When a speaker is asked for an address give them the address of the building where the meeting is being held, Many public officials on various boards use the city building as their address, What are they trying to hide?? This has happened serval times at City of Champaign City Council meetings. Just quote the referenced statue and let the record show the board is violating the law. Let AG Kwamie Raoul deal with the boards.