Contract fight continues for Dist. 200's former superintendent

Gary Catalani, the former superintendent of Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200, recently took the reins of a school district in Arizona.

But while Catalani has a new job, the three-year legal fight to keep his old employment contract private continues.

On Tuesday, the Illinois Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether District 200 can continue to deny Wheaton resident Mark Stern's request for a copy of Catalani's contract.

No matter how the high court decides the case in a few months, observers on both sides of the issue say the outcome will have a ripple effect.

Watchdog groups are predicting that if District 200 wins the case, governmental entities across the state could hide the employment contracts of public officials from public scrutiny.

"If the school district wins, what we will see are more public bodies, not just school districts, withholding employment contracts from disclosure," said Terry Pastika, executive director of the Elmhurst-based Citizen Advocacy Center, which has filed a supporting brief with the high court.

District 200 leaders claim that a legal victory for Stern could force government bodies to open up personnel files that are normally exempt from Illinois Freedom of Information Act requests.

Stern says he never intended to touch off a protracted court battle when he originally asked District 200 for a copy of Catalani's contract in January 2006. At the time, Stern was a school board candidate, and Catalani was the highest paid school superintendent in Illinois.

Stern says he wanted to know if Catalani's contract, which paid a base salary of $306,000 during the 2005-06 school year, included guaranteed raises.

"That was really the only issue," he said. "But it's grown into this huge thing because they have been fighting me every step of the way."

However, Stern makes no secret that he intends to put a copy of the contract on his Web site. District 200 leaders say they want to shield parts of the document that may contain private information.

"We feel like we need to protect that relationship between the employer and the employee," school board member Barbara Intihar said.

So for months, District 200 repeatedly refused to release the contract to Stern - even after it was notified twice by the Illinois attorney general's office that the contract is public and should be released.

Stern filed a lawsuit against the district in November 2006. He lost the first round in civil court several months later when a DuPage County judge ruled that Catalani's contract is exempt from public disclosure because it's kept in a personnel file.

In making his decision, the DuPage circuit judge relied on an earlier case where an appellate court blocked the Peoria Journal Star's attempt to get copies of a letter and performance evaluations in a school superintendent's personnel file.

Stern's attorneys appealed.

Then last June, an appellate court rejected the DuPage ruling. The appellate court decided that a DuPage judge must take another look at Catalani's contract and determine if the document contains any private information that should be withheld before it is released to Stern and the public.

District 200's attorney, John Relias, doesn't agree with that appellate court ruling. He said it could force the disclosure of employee evaluations or disciplinary actions, which are contained in personnel files.

That's why the District 200 school board decided to appeal the case to the Illinois Supreme Court, board President Andy Johnson said.

"It (the appellate court decision) would basically open up personnel files to inspection and review and FOIA by anybody for any reason," Johnson said. "We as a board and as an employer didn't think that was appropriate."

But Pastika says the privacy of public employees wouldn't be compromised because private information still would be exempt from disclosure.

"This case is simply about when tax dollars are being paid to compensate a public employee, the public should be able to see the contract and the terms of the compensation," Pastika said. "This case is not about anything else other than being able to see how public monies are spent."

And according to a supporting brief the Illinois attorney general's office filed with the supreme court, a superintendent's contract shouldn't be considered exempt just because of where it's stored.

"The broad rule that the district advocates," the brief reads, "that, by merely placing a document in a personnel file, a public body may avoid its disclosure - is contrary to the plain language and express purpose of the FOIA, as well as common sense."