Release minutes of closed meeting now
This isn't about a landfill or a trustee. The tape recording of the Buffalo Grove Village Board's 35-minute executive session on April 18, 2005, should be safely stored away.
Instead, it's missing.
And that must be considered apart from any polarizing issues and personalities.
"They are kept in a box that was locked until last Tuesday, in a file cabinet that was sometimes locked and sometimes not, in the village clerk's office, which is locked," Clerk Janet Sirabian explained in a letter last week.
Sirabian, who is charged with keeping track of these records, said the box containing the tape has not been accessed since she lost her keys in May 2009. She said she realized this tape was missing June 8, when she broke the lock on the box and tried to retrieve the recording. She says she is now trying to determine whether this is the only tape missing - or if others have disappeared as well.
The Illinois Open Meetings Act provides instructions for handling records of executive session documents. The tapes must be preserved until at least 18 months after the minutes are approved and released to the public, said Cara Smith, public access counselor with the Illinois Attorney General's office. After that time, a board can vote to destroy the recording.
In this case, the minutes of the session focusing on the Land and Lakes Landfill have not been released. We urge members of the Buffalo Grove Village Board, which will discuss the missing tape at tonight's meeting, to immediately release the written minutes of that executive session. In addition, we urge the board to make public any documents related to the topics discussed.
Closing the doors to discussion of a public issue is a limited right and a privilege. Violating rules that govern executive sessions - whether intentional or accidental - is a violation of the public's trust.
In light of the missing tape, it's crucial that action is taken immediately to restore that public trust. There's no justification for keeping the content secret with the subject of the executive session resolved.
In addition, we believe trustees must order a detailed inventory of its executive session recordings and share the results with the public. While we appreciate Sirabian's promise to review her own record-keeping, this kind of audit is best conducted by outsiders.
This is a potentially serious violation of the Illinois Open Meetings Act, a law designed to protect the public and provide transparency in government. It could even involve a possible misconduct violation in the Illinois Municipal Code or tampering with public records. All are potential criminal acts that merit review by the Illinois attorney general's office or the state's attorney.
These are not minor issues. They are crimes that could result in fines, removal from office or even incarceration.
Losing records erodes the public's faith in government. The village board must take steps to restore that trust tonight.