OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL STATE OF ILLINOIS Lisa Madigan [ATTORNEY GENERAL June 2, 2016 Mr. Jon Styf Sports Editor Northwest Herald 7717 South Route 31 Crystal Lake, Illinois 60014 ‘The Honorable Donald Drzal President, Board of Education Huntley Community School District 158 650 Academic Drive Algonquin, Illinois 60102 RE: OMA Request for Review ~ 2016 PAC 40305 Dear Mr. Styf and Mr, Drzal: ‘This determination letter is issued pursuant to section 3.5(e) of the Open Meetings ‘Act (OMA) (5 ILCS 120/3.5(¢) (West 2014), as amended by Public Act 99-402, effective August 19, 2015). For the reasons discussed below, this office concludes that the Board of Education of Huntley Community School District 158 (Board) violated section 2.02(c) of OMA (5 ILCS 120/2.02(e) (West 2014)) by failing to provide advance notice of the Board's final action to hire a football coach at its February 18, 2016, meeting, BACKGROUND On February 18, 2016, Mr. Jon Styf, on behalf of the Northwest Herald, submitted a Request for Review to the Public Access Counselor alleging that the agenda of the Board's February 18, 2016, meeting did "not give an adequate description" of the Board's vote to hire a high school football coach during that meeting, On February 24, 2016, this office sent a copy of the Request for Review to the Board and asked it to provide a written response to Mr. "E-mail from Jon Styf, Sports Editor, Northwest Herald, to Public Access Counselor, Illinois Attorney General's Office (February 18, 2016). 500 South Second Stet, Springfield linois 62706 + (217) 782-1090 + TTY: (217)785-2771 + Fax: (217) 782-7046 10 West Rando Street, Chicago, nas, 60601 + (12) 814-3000 + TTY: (312) 8143374 + Fax: (312) 814-3806, 1001 Eas Main, Carbondale, nas €2901 (618) 529-6400 «TTY: (618) 529.6403 + Fx: (618) 529-6416Mr. Jon Styf Hon. Don Drzal June 2, 2016 Page 2 Styfs allegation and copies of the agenda and open session minutes of the February 18, 2016, meeting. Having received no response, on March 21, 2016, this office resent those ‘materials to the Board together with an e-mail requesting the status of the Board's response. On March 29, 2016, the Board provided via e-mail the requested materials and its written response, dated March 28, 2016, stating that "the District acknowledges an unintentional violation of the law/."? The Board's response further stated, in pertinent part: ‘The District acknowledges that the approval of the hiring of a head football coach was not specifically identified on the agenda; however, we feel that through past practice and through consistent treatment of our personnel addendum each month for over 10 years, the public was, and always has been, given proper notice thatthe Board is acting ypon employment (a.k.a. "hiting") of positions in the District." On April 4, 2016, Mr, Styf submitted a reply that characterized the agenda item in question as a "boilerpate entry" that "gives the taxpayers no information except that some sort of action will be taken over an unknown number of employees(,]" adding that the addendum that indicated final action would be taken to hire a football coach was not made available to the public until after the Board retumed from closed session during the February 18, 2016, meeting.* On April 19, 2016, this office requested additional information to clarify the Board's response to this office. On April 21, 2016, the Board furnished that information, stating: 2Mr, Drzal, who responded on behalf of the Board, acknowledged that he initially mistook this office's February 24, 2016, letter that was received by e-mail on that date as merely providing notification that a Request for Review had been filed, and did not realize a response was required. >Letter from Don Drzal, President, Board of Education, Huntley Community School District 158, to Steve Silverman, Assistant Bureau Chief, Public Access Bureau (March 28, 2016), at 1 “Letter from Don Drzal, President, Board of Education, Huntley Community School District 158, to Steve Silverman, Assistant Bureau Chief, Public Access Bureau (March 28, 2016), at 1 E-mail from Jon Styf, Sports Editor, Northwest Herald, to Stove Silverman, Assistant Bureau Chief, Public Access Bureau (April 4, 2016).Mr. Jon Sty Hon. Don Drzal June 2, 2016 Page 3 ‘The reference to the addendum was included in the online agenda via our Boardbook application (available via our district website), posted on our Administration office doors, and emailed to members of the community, including the media, prior to the 48 hour advance requirement, ‘The addendum with the positions and the names of the intended hires were printed out and handed to all meeting attendees upon our return from close session. (Emphasis added. ‘The Board further explained that "our district is the second largest employer in McHenry [CJounty, We must take personnel action on numerous positions each month. ‘This is apparent to anyone attending our meetings, reviewing our agendas, and reading our published minutes, The general posting, as indicated in the OMA, is done each and every meeting," ANALYSIS "The General Assembly * * * declares it to be the public policy of this State that its citizens shall be given advance notice of and the right to attend all meetings at which any business of a public body is discussed or acted upon in any way." 5 ILCS 120/1 (West 2014). Section 2,02(a) of OMA (5 ILCS 120/2.02(a) (West 2014)) provides that "[a}n agenda for each regular meeting shall be posted at the principal office of the public body and at the location where the meeting is to be held at least 48 hours in advance of the holding of the meeting. A public body that has a website that the full-time staff of the public body maintains shall also post on its website the agenda of any regular meetings of the governing body of that public body.” Further, section 2.02(c) of OMA 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.” OMA does not contain a definition of "general subject matter." ‘The relevant agenda item for the Board's February 18, 2016, meeting provides: “E-mail from Don Drzal, President, Board of Education, Huntley Community School District 158, to [Steve] Silverman, April 21, 2016. E-mail from Don Draal, President, Board of Education, Huntley Community School District 158, to [Stevo] Silverman, April 21, 2016Mr. Jon Styf Hon. Don Drzal June 2, 2016 Page 4 15.3. HR Personnel and Addendum Reports (A) (Ms. Lombard) Seeking approval of the personnel reports provided and reviewed by the Board, which includes explanation for resignations retirements, terminations, employment, contract revisions, and leave requests, as presented!" ‘The meeting minutes document that, pursuant to this agenda item, the Board approved more than thirty (30) personnel transactions, including resignations, leaves of absence, replacements for staff positions, and extra-curricular appointments, including the appointment of Mr. Matt Zimolzak as head football coach.” ‘The agenda item in question indicates only that final action would be taken upon various types of employment transactions; neither position titles nor the names of individuals appear on the agenda. A review of the Board's website, however, indicates that the Board publishes the "Personnel Report" under the heading "Agenda Packet" on its website within "Boardbooks." The Board has confirmed for this office that this document was posted with the agenda on the website. This "Personnel Report” details the types of personnel actions to be talcen (resignation, replacement, etc.) the position affected, the employee's name, the salary, and, where relevant, reason for the transaction, as well as the effective date. Mr. Styf did not raise the issue of whether inclusion of the details of all personnel transactions to be the subject of final action in an attachment to the agenda, found under the "Agenda Packet" online, as opposed to listing all of those transactions on the agenda itself, provides sufficient notice. In fact, Mr. Styf specifically noted in his Request for Review that the "proper agenda’ included that the Board ‘would hire such positions as bus driver and track coach.'" Here, however, the football coach position was not listed in the Personnel Report that was available online before the meeting; instead, no specific reference to that action, or the other personnel transactions listed on the addendum, was given until just before the final action at the meeting. The Board acknowledges that it failed to provide advance notice of its final action to hire a football coach, and has agreed to "correct this particular issue by including an action item for ratification of the head football coach on a properly posted and specific agenda.""' Accordingly, this office concludes that the ‘Huntley Community Schoo! District 158 Board of Education, Regular Meeting with Closed Session, Agenda Item 15,3. (February 18, 2016). Htuntley Community School District 158 Board of Education, Regular Meeting, February 18, 2016, Minutes 3-5. "E-mail from Jon Styf, Sports Editor, Northwest Herald, to Public Access Counselor, Illinois “Attorney General's Office (February 18, 2016). "Letter from Don Drzal, President, Board of Education, Huntley Community School District 158,Mr. Jon Styf Hon, Don Drzal June 2, 2016 Page 5 Board violated section 2.02(c) of OMA, and request that it remedy that violation by reconsidering and revoting on that final action after including the general subject matter of the hiring of a football coach as an agenda item on the agenda posted on its website and at the location of the meeting and the District's principal office. Because of the large number of personnel transactions that take place each month, the Board has elected to include a catch-all agenda item for personnel transactions and to provide specific notice of certain personnel transactions in the "Personnel Report” which is separate from the agenda. There is no Illinois case law that directly addresses the propriety of this action, and ‘we decline to make any findings with respect to this issue as it was not raised in the initial request for review. As a practical matter, an attachment to the agenda of all personnel items makes the agenda less cumbersome and, for those familiar with "Boardbooks" and the Board's practice of posting the "agenda packet" with the personnel report as an attachment, provides the required notice. Indeed, the personnel report exceeds the minimum requirements of section 2.02(c) of OMA by including not only each category of employee, i.e., football coach, and each type of personnel action, i.e. hiring, but also information such as salaries and effective dates. Yet, for those who might view the copy of the agenda that is physically posted or those who ate unfamiliar with the Board's practice, knowledge of and accessibility to the “personne! report" posted online may be insufficient. In order to ensure transparency, we suggest that (1) the agenda specifically state that the full list of employment matters to be voted upon is contained in the "Personne! Report," and reference how and where to access the report online as well as at the location of the meeting and the principal office of the public body; (2) the Board ensure that the "Personnel Report" is posted online and is otherwise available 48 hours before the meeting; and (3) the Board discontinue its use of HR Addendum Reports because the Board's response to this office stated that it has relied on personnel reports for more than 10 years to provide advance notice of final actions to be taken on employment matters. Although, arguably, there may be less public interest in the approval of a leave of absence than in the appointment of a head coach, if the Board's practice is to give advance notice of all its personnel transactions in the "personnel report,” then it should give the same notice for all transactions, unless it determines that certain employment transactions warrant specific notice in the posted agenda. to Steve Silverman, Assistant Bureau Chief, Public Access Bureau (March 28, 2016), at 2,Mr. Jon Styf Hon, Don Drzal June 2, 2016 Page 6 ‘The Public Access Counselor has determined that this matter may be resolved without the issuance of a binding opinion. This letter closes this file. Should you have questions please contact me at (312) 814-6756, Very truly yours, oe Av — STEVE SILVERMAN Assistant Bureau Chief Public Access Bureau 40305 202 notice improper sd