The plaintiff in a federal free-speech case with implications for local government meetings finally has a court date: October 21. From the Rock River Times: The plaintiff in the lawsuit, Rockford resident and former Winnebago County Board chairman candidate Michael Castronovo, alleges multiple violations of his free-speech rights at Winnebago County Board meetings and at…
Tag: Open Meetings Act
Update on the Search for DeKalb’s Next City Manager
The city manager, not the mayor, is the chief executive officer in DeKalb’s council-manager form of government. Ideally we should be paying as much attention to selection of the city manager as we do the mayoral election — especially these days, when the city council declines to put expiration dates on their managers’ contracts and…
Council Will Discuss Possible Changes to Meeting Procedures
From a memo attached to the Committee of the Whole (CoW) meeting agenda for August 12: 1. 2.04(a)This section indicates that regular meetings of the City Council shall be convened no sooner than 7:00pm. As last meeting illustrated, when the City Council does not have material for a Committee of the Whole meeting, the Council…
New Council Gets a Good Start
City of DeKalb employees and the group Ellwood Historic Neighborhood have hatched a new plan just in time to take up a line item in the FY2014 budget: Buy up multi-family homes in the north 5th Ward, convert them to single-family and resell each property at a loss. In fact: “We have worked with a…
Trial to be Set for Free Speech Lawsuit with Implications for Local Government Meetings
The two sides in a settlement conference on a federal lawsuit regarding public input at public meetings were deemed “too far apart” to come to terms, so it is expected a trial date will be set at a conference hearing June 21. Two allegations from Count II of the suit, having to do with possible…
What Is the DeKalb City Attorney Talking About?
In the course of a year I submit to the city at least a half-dozen requests under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The vast majority of requests for information are filled as a matter of routine. Every once in awhile, though, the city denies something I’ve asked for by citing an exemption under…
Listen Up, DeKalb. Public Meetings Must Allow Public Comment
**Update: You may have noticed we were offline most of the day yesterday, due to the host’s making a change in server hardware. The last step, restoration of data via a backup, left a draft version of this post that I’ve tinkered with and republished. Winnebago County has opened up its board committee meetings to…
Did the DeKalb County Board Violate the Open Meetings Act?
The new state’s attorney for the county is “reviewing” the following incident: Election of the chairman was listed on the County Board’s public agenda. Members, wanting to discuss the contentious subject of who should chair the board after a prearranged agreement fell apart during public discussion at the meeting, first suggested going into recess and…
DeKalb Council Contemplates New Rules for Public Participation
Council will be discussing more specific rules for public participation (PDF pp. 31-33) than what’s on the books now. It includes prohibitions whenever the chair of the meeting feels like it. 3. Public Comment Not Permitted: The City reserves the right to conduct public meetings at which public comment is not received, when the chair…
Here’s an Interesting Change to the Open Meetings Act
Changes such as the addition of the right to speak during government meetings will take effect in 2013. (g) Any person shall be permitted an opportunity to address public officials under the rules established and recorded by the public body. Looks like we’ll be allowed our three minutes apiece at all public meetings beginning next…