I am no expert on the Open Meeting Act, but it certainly seems as if McHenry County College might have broken the law by not posting the agenda for its board’s Monday evening meeting on the internet before the meeting.

And, by not posting the agenda folks like me didn’t know that the tax-subsidized baseball stadium would be discussed Monday night.

I actually looked at the MCC agenda page Monday night and found no indication of a meeting being held. (Click the image below the map of the new sports complex to enlarge the relevant part of the agenda page.)

Here’s the law. (Yes, I know it is turgid.)

(5 ILCS 120/2.02) (from Ch. 102, par. 42.02)
Sec. 2.02. Public notice of all meetings, whether open or closed to the public, shall be given as follows:

(a) Every public body shall give public notice of the schedule of regular meetings at the beginning of each calendar or fiscal year and shall state the regular dates, times, and places of such meetings. An agenda for each regular meeting shall be posted at the principal office of the public body and at the location where the meeting is to be held at least 48 hours in advance of the holding of the meeting. A public body that has a website that the full-time staff of the public body maintains shall also post on its website the agenda of any regular meetings of the governing body of that public body. Any agenda of a regular meeting that is posted on a public body’s website shall remain posted on the website until the regular meeting is concluded. The requirement of a regular meeting agenda shall not preclude the consideration of items not specifically set forth in the agenda. Public notice of any special meeting except a meeting held in the event of a bona fide emergency, or of any rescheduled regular meeting, or of any reconvened meeting, shall be given at least 48 hours before such meeting, which notice shall also include the agenda for the special, rescheduled, or reconvened meeting, but the validity of any action taken by the public body which is germane to a subject on the agenda shall not be affected by other errors or omissions in the agenda. The requirement of public notice of reconvened meetings does not apply to any case where the meeting was open to the public and (1) it is to be reconvened within 24 hours, or (2) an announcement of the time and place of the reconvened meeting was made at the original meeting and there is no change in the agenda. Notice of an emergency meeting shall be given as soon as practicable, but in any event prior to the holding of such meeting, to any news medium which has filed an annual request for notice under subsection (b) of this Section.

Since the internet agenda posting part does not apply unless the public body has a website and the full-time staff maintains the website, I called John Linehan, Assistant Vice President for Information Technology at MCC.

After asking if the college maintained its own web site, Linehan answered,

Yes, the college has its own web site.

“Do you maintain your own web site?” I asked next.

The college administrator’s reply?

“Yes, we host the server here on campus.”

Maybe I didn’t ask the right question, but it surely seems to me that the college maintains the web site all by itself. No outsiders involved.

Sounds to me as if the agenda posting law was broken, but, as you can see from the later part of the section that I have put in boldface print, it doesn’t matter:

the validity of any action taken by the public body which is germane to a subject on the agenda shall not be affected by other errors or omissions in the agenda.

Another “feel good” law that has no teeth.

So much for public access and open access.