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Villa Park trustees debate ban on BCCs, anonymous letters as board revises rules of order
Summary
Trustees discussed proposed amendments to board rules requiring removal of blind-copy (BCC) emails to trustees and setting limits on reading letters into the record; the board directed staff to remove language that would exempt agenda-management software while keeping a prohibition on BCCs for board communications.
Trustees at the March 10 Villa Park Board of Trustees meeting discussed proposed changes to the board's rules of order aimed at increasing transparency and preventing inadvertent Open Meetings Act violations.
The draft changes would bar the use of the blind-copy (BCC) email mechanism when communicating among trustees and would restrict the circumstances under which letters are read into the meeting record. Several trustees argued for a full prohibition of BCCs; others and staff cautioned that some staff-distributed agenda materials come from an agenda-management system that may not list recipients in the same way.
Trustee Cozart said the board should adopt a clear ban on BCCs to avoid the appearance of secrecy: "Let's have an outright prohibition on the whole BCC," he said, adding that trustees are trained on the Open Meetings Act and can govern their own communications. Manager Harling and Village Attorney Melissa (last name not specified in the record) said the BCC practice was originally used by staff to reduce the risk of an inadvertent back-and-forth that could constitute a contemporaneous meeting prohibited by the Open Meetings Act; staff said it will remove a sentence that suggested agenda-management software could be treated differently.
Trustees also discussed how and when written comments from residents should be read into the record. Several trustees asked that letters intended to comment on a specific agenda item be read during the public-comment period for that item rather than during trustee reports, so comments reach the board while the relevant item is before trustees. Manager Harling said the board can adopt a rule requiring that written statements be presented at the appropriate public-comment time and that staff will implement the direction.
No final adoption occurred that night; trustees directed staff to revise the draft language to (1) prohibit blind-copying for board communications, removing the clause about agenda-management software, and (2) allow letters to be read into the record at the public-comment period corresponding to the subject of the letter. The manager said staff will return the revised rules to the board for formal approval.
speakers:[{"name":"Trustee Cozart","role_title":"Trustee","affiliation_type":"government"},{"name":"Manager Harling","role_title":"Village Manager","affiliation_type":"government"},{"name":"Melissa","role_title":"Village Attorney","affiliation_type":"government"},{"name":"Trustee Kosar","role_title":"Trustee","affiliation_type":"government"},{"name":"Trustee Coomar","role_title":"Trustee","affiliation_type":"government"}]
