Two people allege MCC violated meetings law

Two of the four people told Thursday by campus security to leave McHenry County College while they were waiting for a closed-session board meeting to adjourn have filed complaints with the McHenry County state's attorney's office, charging that the school violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act.

The state attorney general's office was copied on a letter about the incident sent out to multiple counties and is deciding whether to launch a probe of its own, a spokeswoman confirmed.

The county's investigation stems from a Thursday night board meeting in which two security guards approached four people -- including a member of the media -- standing outside board chambers while trustees held a closed meeting.

The security guards then instructed the group to leave, said Tom Carroll, a first assistant state's attorney in Lou Bianchi's office.

The action prevented them from rejoining the meeting when it finally did reopen to the public, Carroll said.

The school has a long-standing policy of closing the campus to students and the public at 10 p.m. for security reasons, said spokeswoman Christina Haggerty.

But the security guards were clearly in the wrong on this issue, said board Chairman George Lowe.

"They thought they were doing right, but you can't do that," Lowe said, noting he wasn't aware this was going on outside the board chambers.

The day after the fracas, officials, including the college president, shared the news with the security guards in question, Haggerty said.

They will face no disciplinary action, she said.

"Unfortunately in this case, they were unaware that people were able to remain outside a closed session," Haggerty said. "And now they are aware."

It's not known how long the county's investigation will last on this matter, Carroll said

The office will investigate a variety of things, such as if trustees intended to break the law and whether the office needs to rescind any action the board took after violating the open meetings act, Carroll said.

The school is cooperating with the investigation.

"Once we were notified of this, our attorney … immediately called the state's attorney's office to verify and follow up about how to proceed," Haggerty said.