Throughout the pandemic, Governor Pritzker has issued a series of disaster proclamations and executive orders that relaxed in-person meeting requirements for public bodies under the Open Meetings Act. The General Assembly also amended the Open Meetings Act to allow meetings without a physical quorum under certain conditions. As we discussed last month, the Governor’s June 2021 disaster proclamation provided public bodies with a clue as to where the Governor might go in his July 2021 proclamation, when it stated that he did not expect to extend his previous orders that allowed public bodies to conduct remote meetings. So, it will come as no surprise that last Friday (July 23, 2021), Governor Pritzker issued a new disaster proclamation that did not include his previous finding that in-person attendance was not feasible due to the disaster. Additionally, the Governor’s newest executive order did not extend the prior executive orders that relaxed in-person meeting requirements. Exec. Order 2020-15.

So, unless the Governor or the IDPH changes course from the July 23rd actions, local governments should resume meetings with in-person attendance, including making sure there is a physical quorum of the public body present at the meeting place. This might also be a good time for local governments to review their remote participation policies to recall how these policies work, and to the extent that they don’t have a policy, consider enacting one. 

While many local governments have made video or audio conferences a part of their meetings in the past year, they should make sure they have a remote attendance policy to allow individual members to attend meetings remotely through the “traditional” Open Meetings Act provisions relating to electronic attendance. That traditional remote meeting process in the Open Meetings Act allows public bodies to adopt rules to allow a member to participate by video or audio conference when a physical quorum is present at the meeting so long as the member is prevented from physically attending because of: (i) personal illness or disability; (ii) employment purposes or the business of the public body; or (iii) a family or other emergency. The remote member must notify the clerk of his or her physical absence ahead of time, unless impractical, and a majority of the public body then approves allowing the remote member’s participation by video or audio conference. 

Local governments have also allowed public participation by email, voicemail, video conference, audio conference, and other means during the pandemic. Local governments may also want to revisit their public comment rules to make sure they address their current public comment procedures because public comment rules are only enforceable if they are “established and recorded by the public body.” 

You can read the most recent disaster proclamation here and the most recent Executive Order that extended certain EOs here.

Post Authored by Dan Bolin and Erin Monforti