At long last, state and federal authorities are poised to end COVID-19 public health emergencies that granted government bodies extraordinary powers during the pandemic.
Those powers included suspending part of the Illinois Open Meetings Act and allowing public bodies to hold public meetings remotely via teleconference. After May 11, though, it’s back to meeting in person if officials are not already doing so.
Some towns in the south and southwest suburbs seemed to abuse the remote access privilege to deny citizens the chance to participate in public meetings. A year ago residents of Dolton and University Park said they felt frustrated by the lack of opportunities to ask questions and offer public comment.
Some towns restricted participation to submitting written comments in advance. Experts agreed that officials who limited public participation during remote meetings created concerns.
“When conducting a meeting over zoom or another telecommunication platform, the public body must make accommodations to allow the public to address the public body,” an editor wrote for a journal published by the Loyola University Chicago School of Law.
When the pandemic began in early 2020, it made sense to take advantage of technology and conduct public meetings remotely. Public health guidance at the time urged people to stay home.
Throughout 2020, health authorities emphasized wearing masks and maintaining social distance in public. Indoor gatherings were restricted to small numbers of people. Then vaccines became available. Children resumed attending school in person in 2021.
COVID-19 remained a potentially deadly threat. But by 2022 many vaccinated people felt as if they could safely resume many activities they did before the pandemic.
Now it’s 2023 and authorities at the state and federal levels have declared COVID-19 public health emergencies will formally end on May 11.
“COVID-19 has not disappeared,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in a Jan. 31 statement announcing the end of the state’s disaster declaration, effective May 11. “It is still a real and present danger to people with compromised immune systems — and I urge all Illinoisans to get vaccinated or get their booster shots if they have not done so already.”
The pandemic highlighted disparities among communities in the Southland. Those disparities include compliance with the spirit of the Open Meetings Act, which champions public access, transparency and accountability.
Larger communities with bigger populations tend to generally do a better job making available to the public information about meetings and government business.
Tinley Park’s website, for example, tells visitors at what time and on which days of the month the Village Board regularly meets. From the homepage it is easy to find agendas, minutes from past meetings and links to videos of public meetings posted on YouTube.
Orland Park requires a few extra clicks, but agendas are available. The most recent minutes as of Wednesday were from Dec. 5. There are no videos of public meetings but there are audio files of proceedings.
Size doesn’t matter. Olympia Fields has fewer than 5,000 residents but it’s website offers excellent examples of access and transparency. Not only are agendas and minutes easy to find, but the website shares detailed documents showing how the village spends public funds.
In contrast, numerous smaller, underfunded south suburban municipalities lack resources to update websites with basic information about public meetings. Visitors are often challenged to find when and where elected officials meet, what topics they will discuss and what action they will take.
The Open Meetings Act requires agendas be posted 48 hours in advance, though some bodies may satisfy this requirement by taping agendas to doors of an administration center.
It’s difficult to measure Open Meetings Act compliance among the hundreds of units that govern more than 60 towns in the Southland. In addition to municipal government, boards of elected officials oversee townships, school, park and library districts.
Ideally, units of government with limited resources would find ways to make information about public meetings readily available. Some public officials seem to discourage transparency. It all comes down to integrity of leadership.
The formal end of the disaster declaration is an opportunity for units of government to evaluate how well they comply with the Open Meetings Act. In the spirit of “Build Back Better,” elected officials ought to examine whether they are doing all they can to share basic information with the public.
Technology seems to regularly become outdated. Before long all websites will require overhauls. Public service should be a primary mission that drives decisions about how government websites function.
Citizens can help, too, by providing feedback about their experiences retrieving public information online. If taxpayers have difficulty learning when their local officials meet, they ought to speak up.
People deserve easy access to information about public meetings. Every unit of government ought to take a fresh look at its website to see how well meeting information is presented to the public.
Ted Slowik is a columnist for the Daily Southtown.
