Skokie Village Board violated Open Meetings Act, Illinois Attorney General finds

The Skokie Village Board violated the Open Meetings Act when it approved meeting minutes in a closed session at its Oct. 2 meeting, per a binding decision made by the Illinois Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor, which recommends the board vote on the minutes in a public meeting after allowing the public to have a chance to comment before the vote.

Mayor George Van Dusen acknowledged the violation at the Dec. 4 Village Board meeting and said that the board will need to correct its action at the next Village Board meeting on Dec. 18.

Trustee James Johnson, the village’s sole trustee not affiliated with the Skokie Caucus Party, filed a Request for Review to the public access counselor’s office on Oct. 4. In his request, Johnson said the Village Board violated the OMA by approving minutes in a closed meeting.

According to the public access counselor’s review of information sent by Johnson and Van Dusen, the village board adjourned its open meeting session on Oct. 2 at 8:10 p.m. to go into a closed session to discuss pending litigation. “The closed section verbatim recording confirms the allegations in Trustee Johnson’s Request for Review, which stated that during the relevant portion of the closed session meeting, the Board approved the June 5, 2023 closed session minutes with Trustee Johnson abstaining,” according to the public access counselor’s opinion.

Van Dusen said that the June 5 meeting minutes will be voted on at the next Village Board meeting on Dec. 18, but the actual minutes won’t be published or explained in detail. He said the minutes include a discussion on a workers’ compensation case, and doing so could potentially violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Johnson, elected to the board in 2021, has made four ethics complaints to the Skokie Ethics Commission, some of which accused the village’s legal department staff of using village resources for the Skokie Caucus Party. All four complaints were dismissed unanimously by the ethics commission. Chicago Resident Edgar Pal made a Request for Review to the public access counselor in the spring, saying the village board violated the OMA during two meetings in January when they discussed the hiring of village attorneys.

On that occasion, the public access counselor gave a nonbinding opinion and recommended the village make nonconfidential parts of the meeting public.

At Johnson’s fourth ethics complaint, the village’s other trustees and Van Dusen filed a motion to dismiss his complaint and recommend a $5,000 sanction against Johnson for making “frivolous” ethics complaints. The ethics commission voted to not go through with the sanctions.