A recent law passed in Illinois requires that all school board members complete training on the Illinois Open Meetings Act.
The problem with the Illinois Open Meetings Act is that it is woefully outdated. Given the current state of technology (internet, free PDF readers, camcorders, YouTube, etc.), if the politicians in the State of Illinois were serious about government transparency, each entity of state and local government would be required to do the following (at a minimum):
1. Post information (including board packets or the like - minus the information that is subject to privacy protection or the subject of executive session) online at least two days prior to public meetings. This would be in addition to the agenda that is required to be posted pursuant to the Open Meetings Act.
2. Post video recordings of meetings to their websites or to a service like YouTube. This would be in addition to the minutes that are required to be posted pursuant to the Open Meetings Act.
3. Post all financial information to their website and update such information at least monthly.
Given the technology available today, there is no reason that each and every citizen shouldn't have this information available to them at their fingertips. A person should not have to submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for anything but the most esoteric information. If we really want openness in government, we need to bring our Open Meetings Act into the 21st century.
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