The La Grange village board has yet to schedule a workshop it agreed to attend in order to better understand compliance with the Illinois Open Meetings Act (OMA), Liz Asperger, board president, said. But she promised that the workshop would be held "sometime after the New Year."
The village board agreed last summer to attend OMA training after the attorney general's office found the board in violation of the law when in it improperly discussed in closed session various scenarios for extending financial aid to the La Grange Theatre.
Asperger addressed the delay last month in response to a question raised by a resident at a meeting of the La Grange Citizens Council, from whom Asperger was seeking endorsement of her bid for re-election in April.
"The [Illinois] attorney general, who encouraged us to have a training session, unfortunately after we tried to set one up reported back to us that they really have no time or no one who can provide us that training session," Asperger said at Dec. 10 meeting.
That is not entirely true, according to Heather Kimmons, an assistant attorney general for public access, who conducts many of the workshops.
In 2007, the last year for which numbers have been reported, the attorney general's office held 51 OMA seminars, according to its website. (See postscript below.)
The scheduling conflict arose when village officials insisted on holding the workshop in the evening, Kimmons said, adding that she had phone conversations on the matter with Village Manager Bob Pilipiszyn and Mark Burkland, the village attorney.
Because a state instructor would have to travel three hours to La Grange from Springfield, where the state's public access counselors are based, Kimmons said she told village officials that the workshop would have to occur on a weekday sometime between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., she said.
"They expressed to me that they were not willing or able to do that as most of the trustees had full-time jobs," she said.
Kimmons confirmed an additional comment made by Asperger that the village would as an alternative seek to contract with a third-party instructor to conduct the workshop.
"My preference would be for [the attorney general's office] to do it, as we are charged enforcing the OMA and know the law," Kimmons said. "But as long as they come up with a viable alternative, that is acceptable to us."
Kimmons said she would contact Burkland to see what progress was being made in that regard. She said she last communicated with him in October.
POSTSCRIPT: Among the 51 OMA workshops conducted in 2007 by the Illinois attorney general's office was one held Oct. 18 of that year for the board of trustees in nearby Hinsdale. It commenced at 6:30 p.m., an evening scheduling not extended to the La Grange board.
Also of note, that workshop was conducted by Terry Mutschler, who at that time supervised public access counseling operations on behalf of the attorney general. Mutschler later resigned that position to return to her home state of Pennsylvania, where she is overseeing implementation of that state's new Right-to-Know Law.
Heather Kimmons explains why Hinsdale got an evening workshop:
In the case of the Hinsdale training you mention, there were some special considerations. As Public Access Counselor, Ms. Mutchler often agreed to evening trainings, as they were suitable to her schedule; furthermore, it is my understanding that our office had received numerous, repeated and validated complaints concerning the Village of Hinsdale in a concentrated period of time, emphasizing the necessity to promptly educate its public officials.
Since Ms. Mutchler’s departure, our training times have been limited to business hours, Monday through Friday, with rare exception. We have found that most public bodies, recognizing the importance of Open Meetings Act compliance, are cooperative in scheduling trainings during these hours.