The time has come for us to clear up a few things about the Eureka Public Library, Eureka, Illinois, and the so-called "complaint" registered with the Illinois Attorney General.
A few months ago, Citizens for Transparency in Government, the publisher of WoodfordTaxFacts.org, wrote a note to Lisa Madigan via the Attorney General's online messaging feature, simply asking for clarification on last year's amendments to the "Illinois Open Meetings Act" laws. The changes require that publicly funded entities post minutes and agendas of meetings on their websites if the sites are maintained by employees of the taxing authority.
Next thing we know, we receive a copy of a letter to the library from the Attorney General telling them they have ten days to respond to a "complaint" they received on the library's compliance with the open meetings act provisions.
OK. Fine. There was no "complaint", but we thought it would be interesting to see how the library responded.
We received a copy of the library's letter back to the A.G. Their defense, essentially, is that they are not currently updating their website at all and so are not bound by the Open Meetings Act provisions. They basically shut down their website rather than go to the "expense" of posting agendas and minutes.
We suppose that is one approach to transparency.
The library has a bit of confusion apparent as to the law. They must believe that "full time" employee refers to an employee who's full time job is to maintain the website. This is not the case. "Full time" refers to regular employees who happen to maintain the website - just for clarification.
Our point here though really, is that we never filed a complaint. We simply were asking for clarification on the fine points of the law. We apologize for any trouble we caused Eureka Public Library. We also encourage them to post minutes, agendas, and Board email addresses and phone numbers on their website. It would only take a few minutes a month. We'd be glad to help in any way we can.
A few months ago, Citizens for Transparency in Government, the publisher of WoodfordTaxFacts.org, wrote a note to Lisa Madigan via the Attorney General's online messaging feature, simply asking for clarification on last year's amendments to the "Illinois Open Meetings Act" laws. The changes require that publicly funded entities post minutes and agendas of meetings on their websites if the sites are maintained by employees of the taxing authority.
Next thing we know, we receive a copy of a letter to the library from the Attorney General telling them they have ten days to respond to a "complaint" they received on the library's compliance with the open meetings act provisions.
OK. Fine. There was no "complaint", but we thought it would be interesting to see how the library responded.
We received a copy of the library's letter back to the A.G. Their defense, essentially, is that they are not currently updating their website at all and so are not bound by the Open Meetings Act provisions. They basically shut down their website rather than go to the "expense" of posting agendas and minutes.
We suppose that is one approach to transparency.
The library has a bit of confusion apparent as to the law. They must believe that "full time" employee refers to an employee who's full time job is to maintain the website. This is not the case. "Full time" refers to regular employees who happen to maintain the website - just for clarification.
Our point here though really, is that we never filed a complaint. We simply were asking for clarification on the fine points of the law. We apologize for any trouble we caused Eureka Public Library. We also encourage them to post minutes, agendas, and Board email addresses and phone numbers on their website. It would only take a few minutes a month. We'd be glad to help in any way we can.
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