Ensuring Open and Honest Government

Illinois Open Meetings Act:
New Legislation

Recent Amendments to the Open Meetings and Freedom of Information Acts
93rd General Assembly, 2003 Regular Session

1. Verbatim recordings: All public bodies will be required to make recordings of all closed sessions (Public Act 93-523 (SB1586), effective January 1, 2004)

• Recordings are confidential: recordings are not to be disclosed or used in a proceeding unless:
• the public body finds that there is no longer a need for confidentiality or
• a court reviews them in a civil or criminal proceeding brought to enforce the Act. As a result of an enforcement proceeding the court could require release.
• Recordings must be retained for a minimum of 18 months and may be destroyed after that time, but only if
• the public body votes to destroy
• the public body creates minutes of the closed meeting

2. Closed meetings may additionally be held by a public body to consider:

• the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of the public body’s legal counsel. (Public Act 93-57 (SB1204), effective July 1, 2003)

• Security procedures and the use of personnel and equipment to respond to an actual, a threatened, or a reasonably potential danger to the safety of the public (formerly only for dangers to the safety of employees, students, staff, or public property). (Public Acts 93-79 (HB105), effective July 2, 2003, and Public Act 93-422 (HB954), effective August 5, 2003)

3. Electronic attendance of members of a public body may be allowed by the public body at regular, rescheduled or reconvened meetings of the public body, subject to certain limitations, including (Note: the Governor returned this bill, HB699, to the General Assembly with recommended changes; it is not yet law. This description assumes acceptance of the Governor’s changes.):

• a majority of a quorum of the members of the public body are physically present at the place designated in the notice of the meeting;
• the member is prevented from attending because of
• personal illness or disability
• absence from the jurisdiction for personal or employment or for the business of the public body
• family or other emergency
• a member may not attend electronically more than half of the regularly scheduled meetings held in a calendar year without a physician’s attestation that the member is physically unable to attend.
• communications made by the member attending electronically are made concurrently available to the public.

Other:

HB1543 brought us the Residential Health Care Facility Resident Sexual Assault and Death Review Team Act, which exempts the records and meetings of the death review teams and their executive council from the disclosure and open meetings requirements of the FOIA and the OMA, respectively. (Public Act 93-577, effective 8/21/03)