Schaumburg to destroy old closed-session tapes

Schaumburg trustees have authorized the village clerk to destroy audio recordings of all the village board's closed sessions more than 18 months old.

Village Clerk Marilyn Karr said the action is not only legally permitted but actually recommended by the Municipal Clerks of Illinois professional organization that helped provide her training after she became clerk in November 2004.

Karr said she's been gradually working on drafting a change in policy but that other village officials were more comfortable holding on to the recordings until she'd come up with a formal proposal.

"It's not just a spur of the moment thing," Karr said of the policy change.

The issue of closed session recordings recently arose in Buffalo Grove when the tape of an April 2005 session requested by a trustee could not be found, and the written minutes of the session had not been approved for public release. Buffalo Grove trustees approved release of the minutes on Monday.

Karr said there is no question about the availability of written minutes of all of Schaumburg's closed sessions, and no one in her nearly six years as clerk has ever requested the original recordings.

Schaumburg Village Manager Ken Fritz said he didn't believe anyone had ever requested to hear an old closed-session recording.

Nevertheless, all the recordings of the village board's closed sessions do still exist, dating back to when they were first legally required to be recorded, Karr said.

She said she was unsure about the manner in which the recordings will be destroyed and is looking into the protocols regarding that.

Recordings of open-session meetings may be destroyed within 30 days once written minutes have been approved, Karr said.