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Municipal Law Q&A Test your knowledge of municipalpractices and procedures with the questions and answers below. Click here to submit a question to Ancel Glink.
Municipal Q&A - September 2002
Question: Are political discussions subject to the Open Meetings Act?
ANSWER: While the provisions of the Open Meetings Act are quite strict in not permitting even a majority of a quorum of the Village Board or City Council to discuss matters relating to their official business, there is an acknowledged exception for matters relating strictly to politics. The Illinois General Assembly recognized that, from time-to-time, numbers of elected officials in some communities, including the Mayor and the full Board or Council, may need to meet in private to discuss political strategy including selecting persons who would be chosen to run for public office or to be available if there are vacancies. Such meetings are not subject to the Open Meetings Act.
In 1980, the Illinois Supreme Court addressed this issue in the case of People ex rel. Difanis vs. Barr. There, the State's Attorney of Champaign County brought a declaratory judgment action against nine defendants who are members of the Urbana City Council. They had met and conferred shortly before a special meeting of the Urbana City Council. The meeting was called to discuss matters the City Council would consider later that evening, but principally in relationship to the political aspects of those matters, along with planning for a forthcoming election. To the extent that these officials discussed matters of public business, the Supreme Court found that the Act had been violated. The Supreme Court, however, used this opportunity to more fully discuss the issue of meetings which could be characterized as almost entirely political. The Court wrote:
The Act is not intended to prohibit bona fide social gatherings of public officials, or truly political meetings at which party business is discussed. Rather, the Act is designed to prohibit secret deliberation and action on business which properly should be discussed in a public forum due to its potential impact on the public.
Later in the opinion, the Court wrote:
Certainly, a true political caucus is beyond the purview of the Act; the Act comes into play only where public business which could eventually come up for a decision before the full body is deliberated or acted upon in private. Thus the defendants' argument that they could be susceptible to prosecution simply for participating in a political caucus is erroneous.
In the context of the City of Champaign case, most of the defendants were Members of one of the national political parties. The theory of the case, however, applies even in a small municipality where individuals may run without party affiliation as independent candidates or on slates not associated with national parties. We believe that the same rules would apply even in a kind of government like a school district where no specific political party affiliations exist. In that setting, the members of a school board, who constitute a majority of a quorum should be able to meet in a private setting to discuss their joint efforts at being elected and whether as a group they might choose to support one or another new candidates.
It is extremely important for all participants in such political meetings to recognize that the nature of these discussions must be limited to items that are of a true political nature. The discussions are not allowed, for example, to drift into areas relating to matters pending before the governmental body or how individuals will vote on those matters. These topics relate to public business and can only be discussed as part of a public meeting, or in that portion of a closed session of a public body, which is permitted by Illinois law.
One thing which is helpful to do, where political meetings take place in private, is to have a statement read at the beginning of that meeting which can be released later to the public, the press or a State's Attorney if questions are asked about the nature of the meeting. A suggested statement is set out below. The creation of an agenda is also helpful because it will keep the attendees on a lawful course. Occasionally at a discussion relating to political matters, someone may begin an excursion into an area which would not be permitted since it principally relates to the business of the public body rather than to strictly political items. Everyone should make an effort to move such an excursion quickly back to completely permitted topics. There may occasionally be tricky questions where politics and public issues may have some point of joinder. Every effort should be made, however, to make certain that these discussions are almost entirely related to political considerations. One way of encouraging this to take place is either to tape record those meetings or at least to take notes on the political content of the discussions. Those notes or a tape could be made available to a State's Attorney or in litigation if there was any question that the officials had violated the Open Meetings Act.
(PROPOSED STATEMENT TO BE READ BY THE CHAIRMAN OF A MEETING OF ELECTED OFFICIALS DIRECTED AT POLITICAL ISSUES)
This meeting is being held in private for the purpose of discussing our political views and desires. We recognize that at this or later meetings, there may be in attendance persons who, as a group, would constitute a majority of a quorum of a governmental body. For that reason, we will strongly endeavor to only discuss matters which specifically relate to our common political goals and actions with regard to the candidacy and availability for office of our group or other individuals who share our general political views. We will not discuss matters currently pending before the (name of governmental body) other than the political aspects of the composition of its governing board or that of other governments. We will not discuss matters which are required to be heard in an open session of a public body, or those which may be discussed in a closed session of a public body, with the exception of those few matters, such as the filling of a vacancy which may be discussed in a political meeting, and then only with regard to the political aspects of those actions. While we recognize that occasionally a matter which is political in nature may involve a public policy issue, we will make every effort to keep the discussion limited to the political aspects which are not subject to the Open Meetings Act.
If you have any questions about these matters, please call Stewart Diamond or Adam Simon at: 312/782-7606.
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