The Village has released edited audio recordings from the May19 Zoning Board meeting. To access the menu of the meeting’s topical audio recording segments, click here.
When listening to the recordings, readers will notice the inexplicable wonderment expressed by many board members as to why most agenda items could not be discussed because an agenda was not “pinned” to the bulletin boards at Village Hall before the meeting. It’s inexplicable because they, as well as the Board of Trustees and members of every Village commission and committee, have been required by law to complete the Illinois Open Meetings Act training.
Proper and timely notice of public meetings is reinforced time and time again in the training, so it’s disturbing to us that so many members ostensibly didn’t seem to understand the law protecting the rights of all residents who might be interested in the matters they were originally scheduled to discuss but couldn’t.
I am at a loss to understand to how this meeting took place at all. Proper notice was NOT posted. The meeting should have been cancelled. It’s as simple as that. The fact that our Village Attorney could give advice to the contrary should be concerning to all residents. Our Village Administrator, who is a stickler for procedure, also failed to act in the best interests of the Village when he too allowed this meeting to go forward.
Certainly, the ZBA chair, who underwent Open Meetings Act training as is required of all village commission members, could have exercised common sense and called the meeting off. But she didn’t, and chose to plow ahead in an ill-advised “discussion” of commercial boarding. You really have to question the judgment of that decision.
No doubt, this infraction will be reported to the Attorney General, putting yet another blemish on the reputation of Barrington Hills.
The meeting continued because the ZBA chair and her cohorts thought they would push thru their ‘unholy’ agenda. Trustee Gohl made a mad dash for the exit early on. Could it be that the large resident turnout and video taping changed their minds? Simply put they cannot ‘edit’ a video of someone else. Video recordings do not lie.