Bills Introduced to Amend the Illinois Open Meetings Act
There have been a number of bills introduced in the Illinois General Assembly recently that would amend the Open Meetings Act (OMA) that will be of interest to local governments and worth following. We have summarized a few of these below:
House Bill 1572 - This bill would amend the OMA to modify the current requirement that a quorum of a public body be physically present in order to allow other members to attend a meeting remotely. If this were to pass, a quorum could be made up of a mix of members attending remotely and in-person. Similar bills have been introduced in the past but did not make it out of committee.
House Bill 1595 - This bill would amend the OMA to modify the amount of a public employee's compensation that would trigger compliance with the "total compensation" posting requirements for IMRF employers. Currently, an employer participating in the IMRF must post the total compensation package for each employee having a total compensation package exceeding $75,000 within 6 business days after approving its budget. If this bill passes, that trigger would change to $125,000. That same provision of the OMA also currently requires those employers to post the total compensation package of any employee whose total compensation package exceeds $150,000 per year 6 days prior to approving that compensation. If passed, that trigger would change to $200,000.
Senate Bill 105 - This bill would amend the OMA to modify the definition of "meeting" to provide that for a three member public body, two members constitute a quorum and the affirmative vote of two members is necessary to adopt any motion, resolution, or ordinance unless a greater vote is required. The bill also modifies the notice posting requirements to require posting at the principal office of the public body only "if such an office exists" and also provide that website posting of meeting notice is sufficient if the public body has no principal office or single building where meetings are regularly held. This bill would also add a new OMA exemption to allow a Chicago police district council to meet in closed session under specified situations and would add special provisions relating to remote meetings of that particular public body.
Senate Bill 155 - This bill would amend the OMA to allow township officials to satisfy their OMA training requirements through a course of training sponsored by an organization that represents townships.
Senate Bill 243 - This bill would amend the OMA to expand the reasons a member of a public body can attend a meeting electronically to expressly include performance of active service on military duty.
