The recent article titled, “RF resident seeks review of possible Open Meetings Act violations” [News, Jan. 29] seems more like a misguided vendetta than an attempt at helping the residents of River Forest.
As we all know, there are only so many hours in the day to read all the newsletters we receive in our inboxes or check village websites for important updates. Thus, like many governing bodies, it appears our village government, in good faith, is trying to find ways to compete for our attention and time. Casual Conversations was created to help update River Forest residents on village happenings and to get feedback from our community. Village President Cathy Adduci seems to want to share information in person, connect with residents, create community, listen and get feedback.
Open Meeting laws are designed to ensure transparency and openness in government proceedings, particularly when deliberating and/or voting on village business. Such laws help to create trust. I believe strongly that our elected officials should follow both the spirit and the letter of the law. I will let the Attorney General’s Office determine if any laws or procedures were broken (I doubt it) by hosting Casual Conversations. Yet in terms of the spirit of the Open Meetings Act, these highly advertised and open to all Casual Conversation gatherings are anything but back-door, secret deal-making sessions that the Open Meetings Act tries to protect against. In fact, it’s the opposite.
If any of us have extra time on our hands and we are looking for ways to get involved and help our village, we might not want to start with trying to shut down community-based conversations with our leaders who are looking to connect with residents and listen.
If there is constructive feedback about these Casual Conversations, I am confident our leaders would listen to that feedback and adjust. I actually believe we should have more, not less, of these Casual Conversations across our many elected bodies, inclusive of our schools, governments, libraries, etc. We should all try to attend, invite our friends, learn and get to know each other and our leaders.
I applaud the energy in trying to make sure our elected officials work for the people. Yet this request to review an OMA violation for a very public and advertised community-based event seems misplaced, a tad petty, and targeted. If the result of this inquiry is that such events are shut down in the future, what was accomplished? Less communication, less connectivity, less community and less information sharing will be the result.
FYI: If you want to see our River Forest government in action, the next Casual Conversations event is scheduled for Feb. 22 at Willard Elementary.
Ross Lissuzzo
River Forest resident