DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) – After a four-month investigation, the Illinois State Attorney's General Public Access Office (PAC) has determined the Decatur Public School Board violated the state's Open Meeting Act.
In a determination letter sent to WAND News, School Board President Beth Nolan and the district attorney, the PAC determined the school board “discussed certain unauthorized topics during at least three of the five meetings” WAND News requested a review of.
In October 2020, WAND News requested a review of closed meetings after e-mails obtained appeared to show the Decatur Public School Board voting, and approving, a bonus for Assistant Superintendent Jeffrey Dase. During its review, the PAC determined the discussion during closed session regarding a bonus for Dase was not in violation of the Open Meetings Act as a final vote was taken in public; however, the PAC does acknowledge, based on the e-mails provide to the PAC by WAND, Board President Beth Nolan appeared to “seek the implementation of the bonus before the public vote which reversed the Board's closed session decision to award it”.
Luke Feeny, an attorney for Miller, Tracy, Braun, Funk and Miller, Ltd, out of Monticello, represented the Board during the review by the PAC. Feeny told the PAC the closed sessions in question were to discuss "[ t] he appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees".
After reviewing the recordings for the meeting in question, the PAC determined the board “improperly discussed” making changes to its organizational chart to add a new position and also improperly discussed the “attributes it sought in any future candidate.” The PAC determined these conversations took place during the closed session meeting on September 8, 2020.
The PAC, in its ruling, also found the School Board improperly discussed whether to “proceed” with an item on the September 22, 2020 agenda and what “substantive course of action to take on the underlying matter.”
During the October 27, 2020 meeting, the PAC determined again the Board acted improperly when it discussed reorganizing the order of meetings, meeting structure as well “as political considerations and the ability to keep a document from being requested and disclosed pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act FOIA”. The PAC wrote in its ruling that during the October 27, 2020 meeting a board member made comments about making comments in a “zoom call” with “most of the board”; however, when asked about this, the board’s attorney said the board member misspoke as “he participates in “Zoom calls each day and instead had discussed the matter with only the Board President.” Because of “insufficient evidence” the PAC could not draw any conclusions on the comments.
While the PAC did not cite any specific violations during a closed session of the Board on September 29, 2020, it did write “Arguably, the Board improperly discussed a Board member' s conduct in closed session on September 29, 2020, but the dialogue was enmeshed with a proper discussion of a specific employee' s performance.”
The PAC ruled because of the violations outlined in its ruling, the Board needs to make the closed session verbatim recordings from its September 8, 2020, September 22, 2020, and October 27, 2020 meetings publicly available. The PAC also cautioned the board saying it to “limit its closed session discussions to the scope of the exceptions it cites to close portions of its meetings in the future.”
In a statement in response to the PAC ruling, a district spokeswoman said:
"Decatur Public Schools has received and is reviewing today’s advisory opinion issued by the Illinois Attorney General’s office. As expected, the ruling concludes that the DPS Board of Education DID NOT take improper action in closed session regarding a proposed bonus for the District’s Assistant Superintendent. The opinion from the AG’s office does state that some portions of conversations held in closed session on three dates fall outside the scope of closed session topics. As such, DPS and its attorneys are reviewing closed session recordings from those three dates, as well as the request from the AG’s office that the Board vote to make portions of these closed session meetings publicly available."
WAND News has requested an individual comment from each board member regarding the PAC"s ruling.
