Village Board Violated OMA by Not Including "General Subject Matter" of Action Item on Agenda
The Illinois Attorney General's Public Access Counselor (PAC) found a public body in violation of the Open Meetings Act (OMA) in its fifth binding opinion of 2026 for an inadequate agenda. PAC Op. 26-005.
A citizen filed a request for review with the PAC office claiming that a village board violated the OMA at a meeting where it voted on the termination of a village employee. Specifically, the citizen claimed that the agenda only listed "Personnel issues" under a "POLICE & LIQUOR" heading on the agenda, which he claimed was not sufficient to inform the public of the matter on which the village board was intending to take final action. The PAC agreed that the agenda description "Personnel issues" did not provide advance notice of the "general subject matter" of the action that was taken, and that the phrase "Personnel issues" was too broad as it could involve any number of other types of personnel actions, and not just termination of a village employee.
In its opinion, the PAC cited to section 2.02 of OMA that provides that "[a]ny agenda required under this Section shall set forth the general subject matter of any resolution or ordinance that will be the subject of final action at the meeting." As discussed in the past, the PAC appears to take a very expansive view of section 2.02 that would include actions taken by public bodies beyond votes on resolutions or ordinances (which section 2.02 seems to apply to). The PAC has applied section 2.02 to any type of action taken by a public body at a meeting, to include motions that do not involve an ordinance or resolution, even though the language of 2.02 expressly states that it applies to "the general subject matter of any resolution or ordinance..." (emphasis added). While unclear from the PAC opinion, it is possible that the village board may have acted on the termination via a resolution or ordinance, which would then clearly fall under section 2.02. In any event, it is advisable that an agenda of a meeting of a public body be sufficiently descriptive to inform the public of items that will be voted on at the meeting, whether those actions fall under 2.02 or otherwise.
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