DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) – The Decatur Public Schools district released never before heard audio from multiple closed sessions more than a month after the Illinois State Attorney General’s Public Access Office (PAC) determined the board violated the Open Meetings Acts for discussing topics not allowed behind closed doors.
An attorney hired by the board to represent them in the AG’s investigation heavily redacted the meetings in question and released roughly 40 minutes of the closed session topics in question. The topics discussed in the released audio include keeping documents away from being obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, a bonus for Assistant Superintendent Jeffrey Dase, transparency and what was the upcoming April 2021 school board election.
All four of the audio clips can be heard below:
The meeting with the most off-limits topics occurred on Oct. 27, 2020. It started with the board discussing making changes to the board agenda following public outcry over a proposal to give Dase a $30,000 bonus.
Board member Dan Oaks can be heard asking if the board “thinks it is good idea to talk about bonuses” when Board President Beth Nolan states she believes the board owes “the public some transparency.” The board’s attorney interrupts the discussion saying he does not think the board can discuss the agenda changes in closed session.
The board continues to discuss the agenda, according to the AG who wrote in its ruling on the board’s violation that board members "improperly discussed in closed session reorganizing the order of the meeting and its general meeting structure".
As the Oct. 27 meeting continues, the conversation turned to the bonus being considered for Dase and how it should be addressed with the public. Part of the conversation was “rubric” used to determine bonus structure. The board discussed whether two slides explaining Dase’s bonus should be made public.
It was during this part of the closed session that district spokeswoman Denise Swarthout said, “because the media is on this story, it is going to get FOIA." It was at this time board member Regan Lewis said "I still don't think we should put this out there. We weren't ready. Slap a draft watermark on it or something,” which the PAC determined to be a violation of the Open Meetings Act.
Lewis was the only member of the board who responded to WAND News’ request for a comment after the audio was released. She told WAND she was “thinking out loud” when those comments were made and she was trying acknowledge the errors that had been made and figure out a way to resolve the situation without doing any further harm to anyone.
It was not the only time Lewis’ comments during the Oct. 27 closed session were determined by the PAC to violate the Open Meetings Act. The board also spoke about running for re-election and if voting to approve the bonus for Dase would hurt their chances of re-election if they voted to approve the bonus, and run for re-election.
“If we have four new seats, whatever me, Dan and Andrew think about Jeff doesn't amount to much unless… but going to into this, everyone is going to be pissed going into something and it is probably going to be Jeff,” Lewis can be heard saying.
Board Vice-President Courtney Carson also chimed in, saying “the main focal point of running is to unseat Beth Nolan, this board, including myself and get Jeff the hell out of here." The PAC determined these comments by the board members were considered “political considerations” and a violation.
The district refused to make an official comment on what was said in the audio released and would not make anyone available to provide a district response, however, Dase did agree to speak to WAND News’ Chris Carter, who reached out to get his opinion on the conversations about him. He said the bonus was not his idea, and while he did create a rubric for a bonus structure, he was under the impression the rubric would be for the following school year, and a different position that Board President Beth Nolan had discussed with him.
"The Board President came to me and said they felt like I was a flight risk and because they felt like I was flight risk, they wanted to show me support and that is when the $30,000 bonus came up,” Dase said. “I had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with that coming to me. I said 'okay, you all can do whatever you want to do.’ Am I going to turn down $30,000, no.”
During the meeting, the board discussed keeping the rubric document from the media. WAND News has sent a public records request to the district to get the rubric and have asked the Public Access Office for guidance on obtain it.
The attorney general also found the board had violations in several other meetings, including the meeting on Sept. 8, 2020.
“During the September 8, 2020, closed session, the Board improperly discussed making changes to its organizational chart to add a new position. The Board also improperly discussed the attributes it sought in any future candidates,” the ruling for the PAC said.
The board was also found to have discussed an agenda item and what course of action to take on it during the closed session on Sept. 22, 2020.
The PAC began its investigation in the board meetings after WAND News requested that the meetings be reviewed following emails sent from Board President Beth Nolan about Dase’s bonus.
Lewis, the only board member to respond to WAND News’ request for comment, told WAND News the board was not involved in what was released from the closed sessions and said it was left up to the private attorney hired by the board.
