Burr Ridge Penalty For Telling Secrets?

BURR RIDGE, IL – A Burr Ridge trustee last week suggested penalties for any trustee who releases information about "confidential" matters during closed meetings.

He said it's been a problem before, referring to the board's frustrations with then-Trustee Zach Mottl.

During a Village Board meeting last Monday, Trustee Guy Franzese did not say what type of penalty he would like to see.

"(Trustees) should not be able to divulge confidential information discussed during the meetings without some sort of penalty," he said.

In recent weeks, Patch has reported on the Lyons Township High School board's closed meetings from 2022 and 2023. In those sessions, the board spoke for hours about a possible land deal that the attorney general ruled should have been discussed in public.

Last year, the Burr Ridge Park District board was found to have violated state law by speaking about a proposed commercial development behind closed doors.

In an email, Patch asked Franzese whether members of those boards would have had a right to speak publicly about the matters discussed, given that the boards had run afoul of the Open Meetings Act.

Franzese declined to speak about those boards, but he said that if their members see violations, they have a right to go to the attorney general to report them.

"Reporting (Open Meetings Act) violations are not what I am suggesting a rule for," he said. "The rule would penalize an elected official or a Staff member who reveals confidential information discussed during closed session meetings."

During last week's meeting, other trustees seemed open to Franzese's idea. A draft policy may later go to the board.

In 2020, Mottl angered his colleagues when he publicly brought up controversial texts by the village's incoming administrator, Evan Walter.

They were also upset when he spoke about the employment situation of the village's then-finance director, Jerry Sapp. The trustees were looking to quietly ease out Sapp. They failed.