Reconvened Meetings: What Does The Open Meetings Act Require?

ILLINOIS (ECWd) –

After receiving and reading several complaints and questions on the propriety of Shelby County’s upcoming meeting, which will be reconvened tonight, we thought it prudent to get this information out to the public.

Open Meetings Act, Section 2.02:

“[…] The requirement of public notice of reconvened meetings does not apply to any case where the meeting was open to the public and (1) it is to be reconvened within 24 hours, or (2) an announcement of the time and place of the reconvened meeting was made at the original meeting and there is no change in the agenda. […]

As you can see (in the video below) during the January 30, 2023, meeting, the Chairman announced the time, place, and location to reconvene the meeting, and they are using the same agenda.

This falls squarely within the permissions granted in the statute – no need to look at Robert’s Rules of Order because the statute takes precedence.

It makes for more efficient meetings when agenda items cannot be resolved during the original meeting time. It saves public resources by not having to re-notice or print new agendas, since under this rule they must not change the agenda.