by Cal Skinner
You've heard of "pay to play."
How about "pay to see?"
McHenry County Blog watches a couple of school districts. One is Carpentersville School District 300. Last spring its tax hike committee spent about $136,000 to pass a 55-cent tax hike and a massive bond referendum. The tax hikers' campaign was financed primarily by home builders and school vendors. It has $41,000 in the bank for the next tax hike effort or, maybe, to make certain its school board candidates get elected next April.
Today's story is about Algonquin resident Stan Gladbach's attempt to get what board members and reporters get so he can understand what is going on at school board meetings.
Sometimes Gladbach is a Community Finance Committee member and sometimes just a member of the audience.
One could say that he is an active member of the District 300 community.
So, one can understand his frustration when he is forced to sit at board meetings without being able to see the reports that are being discussed.
In order to get the August 28th board packet, he was told he would have to file a Freedom of Information request and pay by the page.
Reporters are regularly given this information, but taxpayers have to pay for it.
The union has it in its contract.
Gladbach wonders,
Do I, a taxpayer, need a contract also to receive public meeting documents?
On September 11th, Gladbach addressed the board on the subject.
I have a little issue I think we can resolve tonight. In my attempt to be a better informed resident, I requested a copy of the public information packets for Board meetings.
I wanted the same information that is given to union members and reporters. Today I had to drive down to the Administration building, and write a check for $2.40 for the Board packet.
I am sure you have heard of the phrase “pay to play” but “pay to see” what is being discussed tonight in a public meeting is unreasonable.
I am a taxpayer within the District. Why do I have to pay money to be better informed during the District meetings?
All due respect, is this the kind of transparency District residents can expect?
Let’s be reasonable. This policy needs to be changed immediately and it is a waste of time and taxpayer money for the communication director to extract $2.40 from me. I would venture a guess that it is going to cost the district more than $2.40 to process my check.
Can I have my $2.40 back?
Thank you for your time.
When I contacted newly hired District 300 communications supervisor Allison Smith to find out if anything had happened as a result of Gladbach’s plea, here is what I found:
We’re going to start getting those online.
It’s something the board has to explore a couple of aspects of how that would work.
The board packets that are presented at many meetings are unofficial. They are documents being presented for the board’s consideration. So, with that in mind, there is a potential for them to be amended at the meeting and anything that would be posted online before the meeting would be documents pending board approval. So, a couple of things the board would have to decide.
I would suggest that we simply post them online with a caveat that these are documents pending board approval.
I am completely open to allowing the public to be more engaged in the board meetings by being able to follow along.
I’m a big believer in public engagement and, if we want the public to come to our board meetings and be engaged in the process, we need to make that as easy as possible for them.
When they would start would be a few weeks. This fall.
I would like it happen today, but there are procedures to follow—the board policy committee needs to meet and review the topic and make a recommendation to the board and, then, the board would need to approve any new or amended policy it would create.
I don’t think that anyone would disagree that we want the public to have access to the information.
The agreement is there that everybody wants people to be more engaged at board meetings.
Until then, residents can file a Freedom of Information Act request the Thursday or Friday before the board meeting. That’s after the packets have been created. 15 cents a page still.
You can also read how the local daily newspaper in McHenry County finally published an article about the Chicago Crime Commission's investigation four months after the first of three articles appeared on McHenry County Blog.
