Attorney General’s office cracking down on Wayne County board

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By admin

Published: March 17, 2010

WAYNE CO.—We found out Monday morning why Wayne County board chairman Darrell (“Durrl”) Stephenson was so adamant against letting board rep Larry Bunting call an executive session last Thursday night (03.11.10).

It’s because two weeks ago, after learning the topics of discussion in the March 1 executive session were about policy and policy isn’t an exemption under the open meetings act, we filed a grievance against the board…and Monday, the Illinois Attorney General’s office notified us that our grievance had merit and that the board violated the OMA.

Durrl was really quick to snap at Bunting last week in the regular board meeting (3.11.10) that “there would be no closed session,” even though Bunting was seeking one. In the letter we received Monday (03.15.10), Lisa Madigan’s office stated that they’d notified Wayne County (their legal counsel being state’s attorney David Williams; the letter said they’d sent the material to Kevin Kakac, former SA. Apparently they don’t keep up with the ever-changing prosecutors downstate), and that they would be pursuing action against the board, which could take several different forms. The board has a chance to defend their actions…but they’ve already acknowledged that they’ve screwed up.

The letter states that the AG’s office, once the board makes a defense, “may decide that no violation occurred; the matter may be resolved through informal mediation by the Public Access Counselor’s Office attorneys and staff; or the PAC may decide to issue a binding opinion.”

If the AG’s office issues a “binding opinion,” they must issue it within 60 calendar days after receiving all the documents necessary to decide the issues raised by our complaint. The Wayne County board has been required by the AG’s office to provide “a written response to the allegations” and apparently, minutes/recordings of this closed meeting in question.

While this is cool, it goes to show: the media can make a difference IF THEY’RE PAYING ATTENTION, and hey, guess what? WE WEREN’T EVEN THERE. But other media was. Where were they? Did they make a complaint? We don’t know…but we doubt it. And this is what’s wrong with things right now. Nobody wants to get off their ass and point it out when a government entity screws up like the Wayne County board did. That’s why we are constantly griping about “lazy media.” We are a staff of two…and yet we do more about these stinking public officials in a day than a dozen mainstream media outlets with their staffs of 15-30 people do in a year. Pitiful.

Furthermore, so few people know that your common, everyday citizen can do what we just did—you have the power and authority to complain to the attorney general’s office if you see a public body doing something they shouldn’t be, especially calling a closed session without a valid exemption. You do have to know the exemptions. But since you’re reading this online, you have access to it. Just do a search on “24 exemptions for closed meeting” and you’ll get it. There are only 24 of them. Most of them have to do with schools, litigation and real estate. Everything else is very specific.

There are too many public bodies getting away with too many things these days. They are spending YOUR money in the process. The next time you get a paycheck and there’s enough taxes taken out of it for you to make a big shopping trip to the grocery store, or pay off that balance on your credit card you’ve been trying to take care of, or buy all your kids a new pair of shoes each, think about it….What the hell are we paying these people for if they’re going to subvert the law at every possible turn?

Tagged with: Darrell Stephenson, Durrl, Larry Bunting, Wayne

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