Lawsuit: Campton Hills broke open meetings law

A lawsuit has been filed accusing the Campton Hills village board of violating open government laws at a marathon six-hour meeting.

The complaint, filed Friday in Kane County Circuit Court, says the board failed to give 48 hours notice of a Dec. 16 special meeting, as required, and also forced members of the public to wait outside in a snowstorm while trustees conducted private business until 1:15 the next morning.

Attorney Timothy Elliott, who filed the suit on behalf of resident Bruce Aderman, said Tuesday it appears the board was trying to push through an annexation agreement before a neighboring subdivision could detach from the village.

"The timing of it suggests very close cooperation between the village and the annexors," Elliott said. "It appears to us the purpose of this was to block the disconnection."

Village Attorney Bill Braithwaite said the board gave proper public notice by posting an agenda at village hall nearly 50 hours before the meeting, although he acknowledged the location of the agenda was inside the building and not where the public could read it after hours.

Braithwaite added that members of the public who were asked to leave the Campton Township Community Center - where the board meets - during closed session were told to leave their phone numbers and they would be contacted when the meeting reopened to the public.

Braithwaite, who specializes in municipal law, said it's common for government meetings to run late into the night, and Campton Hills did nothing out of the ordinary.

"I don't believe there's substantial merit to the allegation," he said.

The Open Meetings Act require governments to give 48 hours notice before public meetings, which must be at a place and time "convenient" for the general public.

Elliott said 20 to 30 citizens arrived for the beginning of the Dec. 16 meeting and only one remained when trustees returned from closed session.

He said the approved one-acre annexation agreement would help the village's case against a subdivision that was trying to disconnect because the parcel would be "an island" outside the village limits if the subdivision was successful in detaching.

The lawsuit, which goes before Kane County Judge Michael Colwell on May 12, asks the judge to declare an Open Meetings Act violation has occurred and to void the annexation.