Hanover Park trustee's use of video upsets pair

Hanover Park officials gathered at 8 a.m. last Saturday to discuss the village's next budget.

By 8:10 a.m., the modest crowd had thinned.

Trustees Robert Packham and Wes Eby walked out, refusing to take part in the workshop because it was being recorded by Trustee Toni Carter.

The freshman trustee began videotaping village board meetings a few months ago, fulfilling, she said, a campaign promise to improve communication with residents. She's been posting the tapings unedited on Google Video. Unlike many suburbs, the village itself doesn't tape or broadcast the meetings itself.

"Some people do not understand that the village of Hanover Park belongs to the people," said Carter, who gets help recording meetings from members of Positive Change, a group formed shortly after April's election. "It was a public meeting and the video was for residents who couldn't come."

Packham and Eby acknowledge Carter is within her legal rights to record the meetings. But they see a distinction between a board meeting and a "retreat" such as the budget workshop.

Though such meetings are generally open to the public, "at retreats in the past, we have incorporated confidential information with the issues," Packham said.

He pointed to prospective land acquisitions and new businesses as examples of ventures that could fall apart without private dialogue.

Trustees sometimes meet privately in executive session, but their discussion is limited to what's on the day's agenda. The recent workshop was an opportunity to openly brainstorm, Packham said.

"It'll all eventually be made public," he said. "But you can't set plans and formulate strategies if you can't completely discuss it."

Eby called the meeting a "three-ring circus" and said he wasn't going to give Carter a political platform.

He said he's uncomfortable with what Carter could one day do with the videotapes, such as cutting and splicing. He also thinks a "free-wheeling" conversation isn't likely in front of a camera.

But Carter said she believes nothing should be discussed privately except personnel issues -- even though the Open Meetings Act does allow boards to talk behind closed doors for other reasons, too.

"The public has a right to public information," she said. "Some people want to know what they're trying to hide or cover up."

Eby said there's nothing to hide and that Carter "sees plots in everything."

It's no secret, however, that the board is often split in two: Carter and Mayor Rodney Craig on one side and everyone else on the other.

Craig said he's grown increasingly frustrated by what he perceives as the board's unwillingness to cooperate. He pointed to the board's decision in September to take away the village president's power to call a special meeting. Carter was the lone dissenter in that vote.

"I was naïve in the notion people would put politics behind them and work toward the best interests of the community," Craig said.

When the trustees walked out, Craig simply told them to have a good day.

"I can't control their behavior," he said. "They chose to walk out. It's an open meeting and I'm not going to tell (Carter) to shut off the recording. It's hard to defend their behavior."

Packham and Eby don't think they missed any important village business by leaving. They've been briefed and took part in Sunday morning's session while Carter had another commitment.

But once she showed up at 11 a.m., camera in hand, they took off again.