It’s a little hard to extrapolate from the reporting exactly what took place, but it appears that the guy wanted to speak on an issue that had been decided the prior week. If the meeting had been in California, depending on what the actual agenda item was, he could have been denied the opportunity to speak at that point, but they’d still have had to hear him during the ‘public comment’ portion of the meeting. Sounds like Illinois could use an open meeting law like California’s Brown Act.
Just as an aside, the Brown Act has one of the best articulations of the proper relationship between elected officials and their employers ever written.
“In enacting this chapter, the Legislature finds and declares that the public commissions, boards and councils and the other public agencies in this State exist to aid in the conduct of the people’s business. It is the intent of the law that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly.
The people of this State do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.”
I have found that in most public meetings with Commissioners or Town Councils , the decisions have already been made and the discussion with the public phase is merely a tactic used to make the public think they matter.
ArstedFragg -
You bring up an excellent point in this: “Sounds like Illinois could use an open meeting law like California’s Brown Act.”
To the best of my knowledge every state has an open meting law, including Illinois. Allow me to expand on what this open meeting law does.
Venturer, you said: “the decisions have already been made and the discussion with the public phase is merely a tactic used to make the public think they matter.”
In all likelihood, the council is involved in illegal public meetings. Believe me, rats are always meeting illegally. Here’s what you can do:
In most states, you have the legal power, under your state’s open meeting law, to sue the council, board or commission. The open meeting law can be used to personally sue council members (strip them of their sovereign immunity), nullify ordinances, make the leftist rats pay all your legal expenses and even throw them in jail.
Open meetings is one of the legal tools that can be used to take back America from leftists, especially in your local neighborhood.
Make use of it. It’s fun, profitable and enjoyable watching leftists curl up like caterpillars under a hot magnifying glass.