Can a Public Body Meet on a Holiday?
We have been getting quite a few questions regarding whether a public body can hold a meeting on a state holiday. The answer is...it depends.
Section 2.01 of the Illinois Open Meetings Act provides, in part, as follows:
No meeting required by this Act to be public shall be held on a legal holiday unless the regular meeting day falls on that holiday.
That means that if the public body has adopted an annual schedule of its regular meetings, and one of the regular meeting dates happens to fall on a legal holiday, the public body can conduct its regularly scheduled meeting on that day.
However, a public body should not schedule a special meeting on a legal holiday, which is defined under Illinois statute to include the following:
- New Years Day
- Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday
- Abraham Lincoln's Birthday
- Casimir Pulaski's Birthday
- Good Friday
- Memorial Day
- Independence Day
- Labor Day
- Columbus Day
- Veterans Day
- Thanksgiving Day
- Christmas Day
So, if your regularly scheduled government board meeting falls on January 15th this year you can conduct that meeting. But, you should not schedule a special meeting on that day or any of the other legal holidays in Illinois.
Post Authored by Julie Tappendorf
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