SALINE CO., Ill.—I have filed a temporary injunction in Saline County Circuit Court to prevent Cottage Township from holding any more agenda-less meetings.
The move was predicated on the information I received last night that a hearing will be held this afternoon by county engineer Jeff Jones, who is moderating input from residents of Cottage Township and from Peabody Coal on the closure of Cottage Grove Road, located in Cottage Township.
While what I filed—and received an injunction for—today does NOT stop the hearing from being held tonight, if members of Cottage Township show up and provide any action as a board (in a quorum), any action taken at the hearing tonight—which is only an appeals process about closure of Cottage Grove Road—will be null and void.
Furthermore, it’s my intention to amend the petition I put forth today to declare all action taken in Cottage Township’s agendaless meetings be declared null and void. That, depending on what occurs tonight, may render any decisions/actions occurring at TONIGHT’S meeting also null and void.
We’re tired of public bodies taking the public’s money and not operating under 5 ILCS 120, Illinois’ Open Meetings Act. The accountability to the people doesn’t exist under that circumstance. And when there’s no accountability, public bodies act with impunity. This could clearly be seen when on June 11, 2014, a Cottage Township Board meeting was held without an agenda, and the appointment of Mike Karns as a replacement for Tim Tuttle, Cottage Township Road Commissioner, was made. Judy Kellen, board trustee, told the board at that time that they couldn’t continue forward with the meeting without first having posted a notice 48 hours in advance of the meeting in the form of an agenda. The response before proceeding was “Nobody’s going to do anything about it anyway.”
Now, someone’s done something.
We’re not against Cottage Township. We’re not against Peabody. We do believe that an equitable solution can be reached, and that may be reached tonight. But if the Cottage Township Board acts in any capacity tonight, that action will result in any decision/action being taken tonight NULL AND VOID because a Temporary Restraining Order has been entered by Judge Todd Lambert as of 1:45 p.m. today stating that Cottage Township can no longer conduct any meetings without first offering an agenda per Illinois’ Open Meetings Act.
This is the first step. If it’s not followed, there’ll be more. We have a hearing on July 25 for Cottage Township to provide evidence that they’ve been posting agendas. We have evidence that they have not. We’ll see what happens.