Village Releases Closed Meeting Minutes

At the end of May the Attorney General’s office that content from some of the Lisle village board’s executive sessions in January through March of this year should be released to the public. Last night trustees approved a resolution declaring the minutes non-confidential.

The minutes were not included in the meeting packet, but Patch obtained a copy through FOIA request last week. Meeting minutes are not transcripts. Notes taken by individual staff members were not requested by the Attorney General's office during this review, and are therefore not included. (The document is provided in PDF form to the right.)

Audio recordings of the sessions will not be released.

Each set of minutes lists those present during each session and a brief summary of what was discussed.

As previously stated by a village attorney, the talks focused on a single set of parcels—namely Village-owned properties in the downtown area—and were considered one comprehensive discussion by the village attorneys and trustees.

While the summaries don’t provide any details on specific redevelopment strategies, they verify that trustees met with three real estate development groups through these sessions.

Trustees and present staff met with representatives from Caton Commercial Real Estate Group in Plainfield on Feb. 7, and again on Mar. 7 “regarding their capabilities for marketing the Village-owned properties.”

At the Mar. 21 meeting, U.S. Equities presented ‘a series of projects’ they envisioned for the downtown parcels.

No actions were taken during the closed sessions. Minutes indicate village attorneys were present for the Mar. 7 and 21 sessions.

Assistant attorney general Matthew Sebek, who composed the office’s determination letter, said that meetings held the first two weeks of January were not included in the review because they occurred more than 60 days prior to the request.

Penalties
The Attorney General’s determination letter states that the release of closed session minutes serves to close the matter, which Sebek verified during a phone interview with Patch.

Board members and staff will not be subject to any fees or fines as a result of the determination. According to Sebek, fees are only imposed when a civil suit, not a request for review, is filed. (He cited sections 3 and 3.5 of the Open Meetings Act; see the following link for full text.)

The Lisle Township board was of the Open Meetings Act in January, following a request for review of an October regular meeting.