The City of Urbana continues to struggle with lack of basic transparency. While attempting to perform basic research, Check CU has found that the Urbana City Council has failed to publicly display, and frequently failed to approve, its City Council meeting minutes since May of this year.
The Illinois Open Meetings Act (OMA) requires minutes of meetings of a public body such as the City Council to be reviewed and approved within 30 days, and posted to the City website within 10 days of approval. This law ensures that the public has basic and timely access to the written actions of their government. Here is the exact text from the OMA:
“A public body shall approve the minutes of its open meeting within 30 days after that meeting or at the public body’s second subsequent regular meeting, whichever is later. The minutes of meetings open to the public shall be available for public inspection within 10 days after the approval of such minutes by the public body. Beginning July 1, 2006, at the time it complies with the other requirements of this subsection, a public body that has a website that the full-time staff of the public body maintains shall post the minutes of a regular meeting of its governing body open to the public on the public body’s website within 10 days after the approval of the minutes by the public body. Beginning July 1, 2006, any minutes of meetings open to the public posted on the public body’s website shall remain posted on the website for at least 60 days after their initial posting.”
Urbana has several full-time staff members who maintain the City website, and the City has not made the minutes available to the public via other means. Reviewing City Council agendas over the past few months, several sets of meeting minutes have also been delayed for review until well after the 30 day deadline.
Preparing and posting the minutes is a primary responsibility of Urbana City Clerk, Phyllis Clark. Clark was appointed by Mayor Diane Marlin last year, and was elected for an additional term this spring.
Given the recent and repeated abusive behavior exhibited by Mayor Marlin and the City Council in regards to the Open Meetings Act, Check CU submitted a request for review to the Illinois Attorney General Public Access Counselor. Two week later, on September 23rd, Assistant Attorney General Christopher Boggs sent a letter to Mayor Marlin indicating his intent to investigate.
The IAG letter, along with Check CU’s original request for review, can be seen here (click image for full 4-page PDF):
