SKOKIE, IL — Two months after a determination from the Illinois Attorney General’s Office that the village of Skokie violated the Open Meetings Act, village officials now face a lawsuit accusing them of violating the Freedom of Information Act for failing to produce recordings from improperly closed sessions.
The determination issued April 28 by the attorney general’s public access counselor found that members of the village board improperly discussed topics during closed-door meetings in January that we not eligible for exemptions from the transparency requirements of the Open Meetings Act.
The public access counselor, or PAC, is tasked with educating and enforcing compliance with state open meetings and open records law. But because it took longer than 60 days to issue its finding, it is not binding under state law.
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Edgar Pal, who filed the request for review with the PAC that triggered the determination, filed suit Friday in Cook County Circuit Court.
Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen said in May he would have outside attorneys review the issue.
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“Could you please let me know whether the Board intends to comply with the PAC’s determination?” Pal asked Van Dusen and trustees on June 8. “If so, when do you plan to release the portions of the closed session minutes and recordings that the PAC found to be improper?”
Van Dusen responded the following day, telling Pal he had yet to receive analysis from the outside lawyer he hired.
“The Village has engaged an outside counsel to review the nonbinding and convoluted determination of the PAC and to provide the Board of Trustees with guidance on how to proceed. Once the Village receives that analysis it will be forwarded to the Village Board,” the mayor said.
Van Dusen was questioned about the matter at the board’s June 20 meeting by Trustee James Johnson, the lone member of the board who is not a member of the Skokie Caucus Party.
“We have not yet responded to the Illinois attorney general’s determination from April that we violated the Open Meetings Act during some of our January closed sessions, and we’ve been asked to vote on this,” Johnson said.
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Van Dusen said the vote would occur at the board’s next meeting, scheduled for Monday. He said village officials had hired attorney James Ferolo to advise them about the issue, which concerns the hiring and management of the village’s own law department.
“I found the public access officer’s letter to us confusing, almost contradictory in some points, so I asked Mr. Ferulo to review the entire thing,” Van Dusen said.
Pal’s June 23 complaint pointed out that waiting until July 3 would be after the statute of limitations would expire for his complaint under the Open Meetings Act.
“As of the date of this filing, [the village] has not complied with FOIA and has produced no records responsive to the request,” according to thecompliant filed on Pal’s behalf by attorney Matt Topic.
“Because Skokie had no good faith basis to withhold the records at issue under [the portion of the Illinois Freedom of Information Act covering the release of information specifically prohibited by state law],” it alleges, “Skokie willfully and intentionally or otherwise in bad faith failed to comply with FOIA.”
Related: Skokie Violates Open Meetings Act Again, This Time In Closed Session
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