Pantagraph: Public meetings source of concern

[Tweed]

http://www.pantagraph.com/stories/012405/new_20050124005.shtml

"SPRINGFIELD -- You might not think of a friendly gathering at a buddy's welding shop as breaking the law.
But if you and your friends are elected officials, you could be violating the Illinois Open Meetings Act.

Under state law, governmental agencies are required to conduct business publicly.

As village officials in Colfax recently found out, even the hint of a secret meeting -- one, for example, in the mayor's welding shop -- could draw the attention of the state's top prosecutor."

I don't know, it seems like the first example is a little extreme, but Sunshine Laws are a wonderful thing overall.

Things should be out in the open and if politicians have to jump through hoops in order to do so, so be it.

[seventythree]

1. don't bother

last sentence of the article -- been there, done that -- forget about it. The person's name is still tacked on the bulletin board in front of my face -- where things go which are pending -- months and no return call, and all I asked for was a written opinion confirming what this elected official already knew, and argued in the instant case, but found herself at odds with the board's attorney -- long, long story. On the other hand, a call to the Better Government folks in Cook county found the director himself researching the case and writing a letter, even though it concerned no entity in his jurisdiction -- God bless him -- I really need to send them a contribution which I have been intending for months. In short, you want help? you want an opinion on something you KNOW took place, albeit not earth shaking? You want to stop it in the future when it might be earth shaking? Don't call the AG's office -- not even if you were a financial contributor and think that you should at least have an equal standing with all the rest of the citizens. I'm glad that the office is doing some training -- that is a good thing but it overlaps that done by the associations which represent local government bodies.

And while I am on a rant -- I just read where the Governor's Executive Ethics panel gets paid 32,000 a year and they have yet to have a case come before them. They recently made the news because some on the panel -- a dem, the famous Scott Turow, and a rep. had made political contributions and that was seen as unseemly for people in such an exalted appointment. Actually, my eyes bugged out at the 32,000, considering when the Gov took office, he asked that all those who actually spend hours reviewing cases and attending to their disposition in the Department Of Professional Regulation start doing it for free, with the exception of mileage (heretofore, they had received a small per diem for their actual meeting days -- not the hours of preparation before the meeting). I guess we now know where the savings went. I am a life long democrat who cut a small check to this Governor's campaign, but never, ever think that the crap doesn't exist on both sides, because it does.