Local resident Judy Stalling has been a vocal opponent of Peoria Disposal Company’s (PDC) application to increase the size of their hazardous waste landfill. This morning, she sent this message which found its way to area neighborhood associations:
Re: PDC’s Hazardous Landfill Negotiations
Staff from the Peoria County Board has been negotiating secretly with a few members of Peoria Families, Sierra Club and PDC to reach an agreement on PDC’s operation of its hazardous materials landfill.
Neither the content nor the reason for these negotiations has been made clear to the public.
Please call Bill Prather, Peoria County Board chairman, and request that a PUBLIC HEARING be held on any such agreement BEFORE the Board is asked to vote on it.
Bill Prather 274-2907 H 579-2206 W
Judy
This is a weird message, don’t you think? I don’t believe there’s any law being broken here, is there? I mean, “staff from the Peoria County Board” are not subject to the Open Meetings Act, are they? And the other parties are all private, so they have no requirement to meet openly either, right? And whatever is negotiated will have to come before the Peoria County Board, which means it will be published ahead of time on the agenda and discussed in an open meeting, right? So, why do we need another public hearing? Besides, the anti-landfill people are represented, so I’m not sure what the worry is.
Left unexplained is how Stalling knows these meetings are going on and why she objects to them.
I don’t know if it applies to this situation, but Illinois General Assembly passed a law effective Jan. 1, 2007 that states if three public officials are discussing public business in anyway(talking, phone, email, IM) then they are subject to the open meetings act.
Brad,
do you have the public act number for that by chance?
Paul
That would be public “elected” officials.
Thanks Brad. However, I think Cap’n Jack is correct. That wouldn’t apply to county staff members, but county board members. Someone correct me if I’m wrong here.
At no time has any member of Peoria Families met to negotiate with anyone from PDC. We have spoken individually with board members, or met as a group with individual board members. At no time was Peoria Families included in any capacity in meetings between county staff and PDC.
Peoria Families submitted a proposal to the general public regarding the landfill because we were aware of meetings between county staff and PDC. We are very concerned with the non-public nature of the negotations and have repeatedly expressed those concerns to board members.
Cara Rosson PFATW
Also, CJ, thanks for blogging on this. Since staff levels are down at the PJS, we haven’t been getting the coverage we’d like to at county board meetings. Both of our groups have been present and made comments, but Tonya Koonce has been all by her lonesome.
CJ,
Yes you are correct state law pertains to elected officials, not administrative staff persons and the “magic number is NOT a static THREE, but a “Majority of a Quorum”. In the case of the City Council, that happens to be threeel ected council members —- 11 members, quorum 6 majority of quorum any number over three
As it pertains to County Board 18 members, quorum 9, majority of quorum more than four. Keep in mind the County also has committees with fewer members that would change these numbers dramatically. Five member committee, quorum three, majority of quorum TWO elected committee members