EDWARDSVILLE – Former Madison County administrator Doug Hulme and former information technology director Rob Dorman claim their terminations violate the Open Meetings Act.
They sued the county on June 8, seeking to set aside termination resolutions the county board passed on April 15 and 16.
In the complaint, their lawyer Edward Moorman of Alton wrote that the board didn’t post the resolutions as part of the agendas.
Moorman wrote that the agendas provided executive sessions for discussion of specific personnel and open sessions for action on specific personnel.
He wrote that some discussion of new business is appropriate but that doesn’t excuse failure to include the specific issue of termination in the agendas.
He cited Fourth District judges who ruled that the Adams County board could discuss and deliberate new business but couldn’t take action.
He cited three cases where former Illinois attorney general Lisa Madigan upheld challenges to actions beyond agendas.
In one, a newspaper editor complained that the Orion Village Board closed streets.
In another, the secretary of the Rend Lake Conservancy District board reported the board to Madigan for taking action on financial matters.
In another, Chicago park commissioners raised admission fees at the Art Institute and the Museum of Science and Industry.
Park commissioners argued that authorization to change the fees appeared on a committee agenda, but Madigan found that notice insufficient.
Under state law, “An agenda for each regular meeting shall be posted at the principal office of the public body and at the location where the meeting is to be held at least 48 hours in advance of the holding of the meeting.”
A public body with a website must also post an agenda on the website and keep it there until the meeting concludes.
Hulme and Dorman issued a joint press release on Wednesday, saying that State's Attorney Tom Gibbons gave the county board bad advice, and that he improperly hid from public view resolutions involving their conduct in advance of the meeting.
At the April 16 meeting, Gibbons introduced resolutions focusing on the alleged wrongdoings of Hulme and Dorman that he said were requested by county board members, whom he would not identify. When pressed on who made the request for resolutions, Gibbons said that the member or members could identify themselves if they chose to, but no one did.
Gibbons said he did not have time to distribute drafts to board members in advance of the special April 16 meeting because his office was short-staffed due to the coronavirus. The resolutions, like the votes to terminate, carried 26-1.
“Public bodies have an obligation to comply with all aspects of the Open Meetings Act and to be transparent,” Hulme stated in the release. “On April 16th, Gibbons failed to protect the county and allowed the county board to vote on issues that were in violation of the Open Meetings Act, including submitting unseen resolutions during the meeting that his office
created.”
Hulme and Dorman say that the meeting's agenda contained an executive session and action taken by the board on specific personnel in open session.
Dorman stated in the release, “The Open Meetings Act is an important state law that prevents public bodies from conducting business without public notice and in the dark. Gibbons had to email out his hidden resolutions during the meeting which speaks for itself. I took Gibbons to court before and won because he was operating outside of the law and he is
doing it again.”