Mount Vernon council releases two executive-session minutes, keeps others closed

The Mount Vernon City Council voted on Feb. 3, 2025, to release two sets of executive-session minutes for public inspection and to keep multiple other executive-session minutes closed for confidentiality.

City Manager Mary Ellen Bechtel opened the executive session and cited the authority for the meeting under 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(21), the Illinois statute governing the semi-annual review of closed-session minutes. Bechtel presented a list of executive-session minutes spanning January 2022 through December 2024 and asked the council to act on which records should be opened for public inspection and which should remain closed.

Council Member Joe Gliosci moved to release the minutes of Feb. 20, 2024 and July 1, 2024; Council Member Mike Young seconded the motion. The record shows yeas from Council Member Ray Botch, Council Member Joe Gliosci, Council Member Mike Young and Mayor John Lewis; Moore was listed as absent in the roll call for this action. The motion to release those two sets of minutes carried.

Bechtel and the record then noted that the following executive-session minutes will remain closed because the need for confidentiality still exists: Jan. 3, 2022; May 5, 2022; Apr. 3, 2023; Apr. 17, 2023; Aug. 21, 2023; Oct. 2, 2023; Nov. 6, 2023; Feb. 5, 2024; May 20, 2024; Jun. 3, 2024; Jun. 17, 2024; Sep. 3, 2024; Oct. 21, 2024; Dec. 2, 2024; and Dec. 16, 2024.

Later in the session Council Member Joe Gliosci moved to adjourn and Council Member Ray Botch seconded. The adjournment was recorded with yeas from Botch, Moore, Young and Lewis, and the executive session ended at 7:17 p.m. The transcript contains an internal inconsistency regarding Council Member Moore: Moore is listed as absent in the roll call for the minutes-release vote but is recorded among the yeas on the adjournment vote; the council record does not resolve that discrepancy.

The record lists staff and legal attendees including City Manager Mary Ellen Bechtel, City Attorney Courtney Cox, Assistant City Manager Nathan McKenna and Deputy City Clerk Becky Barbour. The administrative contact block in the record also lists Mary Jo Pemberton and a separate line reading "City Clerk Rebecca Barbour," which is inconsistent with the earlier reference to "Deputy City Clerk Becky Barbour." The minutes and transcript reflect those differing name/role lines; this article reports the record as presented and flags the inconsistency for clarification in the official minutes.

No substantive policy actions, contract awards, budgets, or ordinances were considered in the executive session beyond the statutory review and disposition of closed minutes. The council’s formal actions were limited to releasing the two sets of minutes for public inspection and adjourning the session.