The Journal Star reported this morning that the Park Board violated the law by discussing, in closed session, plans to let District 150 use some of its park land to build a school.
What the article didn’t address were the possible consequences of the board’s illegal action. According to the Illinois Open Meetings Act, this opens up the park board to litigation in circuit court, and that court:
. . . having due regard for orderly administration and the public interest, as well as for the interests of the parties, may grant such relief as it deems appropriate, including granting a relief by mandamus requiring that a meeting be open to the public, granting an injunction against future violations of this Act, ordering the public body to make available to the public such portion of the minutes of a meeting as is not authorized to be kept confidential under this Act, or declaring null and void any final action taken at a closed meeting in violation of this Act.
Check out that last possibility: “declaring null and void any final action taken at a closed meeting in violation of this Act.” It would be interesting to know what actions were taken at those meetings, wouldn’t it? I mean, if they decided to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with the school district at that meeting in closed session, then that action could be subject to reversal.
Circuit court may again be the answer. The Open Meetings Act requires closed sessions to not only take minutes, but have an audio or video recording of the proceedings, and the circuit court can examine those as evidence.
But there’s a time limit of 60 days from the discovery of a violation for action to be taken. When those east bluff residents meet this afternoon at 1:15, they may want to consider their options in light of the park board’s violation.
[...] As C.J. Summers correctly points out, if the Peoria Park District held illegally closed meetings to discuss the Glen Oak Park “community” school project, the resulting intergovernmental agreement with Peoria School District might be null and void. [...]
And the Loser again is — the TAXPAYER, of course. When are the Peoria sheep going to wake up and demand change??
The people of Metamora had a great idea when they tried – and almost succeeded – in abolishing their Park District. There is no good reason for a seperate Park District. The entire entity should be abolished and the parks put under the jurisdiction of the County. Not that the County is perfect either, but it gives the public fewer miscreants to concentrate on.
We need to attend the next park board meeting on April 12th @6:00pm. in the park district offices in Glen Oak Park. To see what will transpire. There mis-step may be the only way to help preserve the park land. Open greenspace for the public is getting harder to come by in the core of the city. The contued disrespect of this historic park is a constant issue. Read there “mission statement” they dont even do what it says.
Wonder if the Peoria Park District (PPD):
(1) conducts the legally mandated (annual or bi-annual) review and release of PPD Executive Session Minutes that contain non-confidential information?;
(2) has ever released any Executive Session Minutes in the history of the PPD?;
(3) realizes that the current PPD website does not list the entire PPD
2006 meeting schedule?;
(4) realizes that both D150 and the City of Peoria, City Clerk site, have an extensive inventory of agendas and minutes available on the internet and the PPD selection is limited to three or four items only? One would think that a Gold Medallion Award Park District would have a Gold Medallion Award website;
(5) has any legal authority to ‘share’ land with anyone with or without the taxpayers knowing about it or even approving of such an action ?
Wonder how D150 will repay the money on the first proposed Health, Life, Safety bond scenario —- $30 million bond debt with $32 million in interest? without any tax levy???? the next two scenarios provide for a tax levy.
Master Facility Planning Committe Final Recommendations —- 10/11/15
http://www.psd150.org/board/MFPCFinal10-11.pdfhe
Here is some interesting reading from D150 minutes:
Click http://www.psd150.org/board/minutes.html
Then specific meetings by date and page numbers at the top of the page —
10/11/05 – p. 94, 95, 96 (Bernie Goitein comments)
10/24/05 – p. 108, 109 (Discussions involve other organizations in partnerships – affected neighborhood associations have shared that they were contacted once in February 2006)
11/7/05 – p. 115 – Hinton pulls item off
11/21/05 – p. 123, 124 (Goitein et al); 131, 132, 133 (Butler and Ross voted against the plan), Spangler asked Cahill if ‘details’ of the plan could be altered and he replied yes.
02/21/06 – p. 211, 212 – Schools by Design Committee formed
The IL Senate has passed SB2477 and the IL House bill is to be read this week and perhaps a vote too and tthen if signed by the Governor, would authorize the Public Building Commission of a city, specifically in this case, Peoria, to issue bonds, PJStar published $60 million amount and these bonds could then be used for schools (new and rehab construction) or other buildings per the statute. Perhaps a viable option IF TAXPAYERS HAD A DEFINITE, SPECIFIC PLAN AND TAXPAYERS KNEW UPFRONT HOW THE PLAN WAS GOING TO BE IMPLEMENTED, and ALL STAKEHOLDERS are brought to the table before hearing about eminent domain et al —- then perhaps our community might be willing to get behind the project.
So what combination of funding will be used?
Is the Peoria Public Building Commission still active? Does it need reappointments? Does the City Council have any effect as it is listed as commission at the city website?
This is a community ‘problem’ and requires a ‘community’ solution, open dialgoue, open meetings, specific detailed plans to be analyzed by any and every stakeholder who would like to participate at a meeting place and a meeting time that ‘regular’ folks are able to attend. Many taxpayers do not have the ability to attend daytime meetings due to their employment.
Decisions in Peoria —– are hurry up, hurry up, it is the best item since ‘sliced bread’, the silver bullet to save Peoria and turn the city around — hasn’t happened yet, our city is worse off then ever, let’s try a different type of community building, ‘go slow’ to ‘go fast’ because we have included all stakeholders to develop the BEST solution! That method WILL turn the city around.
The link to the Master Facility Plan had an extra ‘he’ at the end — here is the corrected link —- http://www.psd150.org/board/MFPCFinal10-11.pdf