Conceal Violations, Lyons Township High Lawyer Told Board

LA GRANGE, IL – Behind closed doors in 2022, a Lyons Township High School board member alerted his colleagues of their months-long violations of the state's open meetings law.

Member Michael Thomas said the board failed to notify the public of the legal exception under which the board could hold closed meetings about a land deal.

In response, the board's attorney said the lack of notice was "unfortunate." But he later suggested a way to hide the violations from the public.

A couple of months later, Patch exposed the violations.

During a Nov. 21, 2022, closed session, Superintendent Brian Waterman, responding to Thomas, said the school used boilerplate language for its exceptions under the Open Meetings Act to hold closed sessions. The boilerplate exceptions, he acknowledged, did not include real estate.

Attorney Ares Dalianis of the Chicago-based Franczek, who attended all but one of the closed sessions in question, said the board should have listed the exception involving setting the price of real estate.

"It's unfortunate that that hasn't been there," he said. "I don't think that is fatal about what has been going on here."

Thomas said he wanted to make sure the school was protected.

"The reason I'm pointing this out is we've been scrutinized for everything under the sun," he said.

Michael Thomas (right), a Lyons Township High School board member, alerted his colleagues in 2022 to violations of the Open Meetings Act. Next to him is Superintendent Brian Waterman. (Lyons Township High School/via video)

Once opposition to the land deal emerged, Thomas said, "then detectives are going to be backtracking. I want to make sure we're covered."

Later in the meeting, the board discussed the public relations strategy for how to unveil its plan to sell the school's 70 acres in Willow Springs – a process triggered by an industrial developer's secret $65 million offer.

At the meeting, members helped draft a statement to be released nine days later – a message that would say nothing about the offer or the desire to sell to an industrial buyer, which would upset neighbors.

Members said they wanted to let the public know the board has been going through "due diligence" on the land.

But Dalianis advised the board to be "a little careful in terms of how much we say the board has discussed." He noted the failure to notify the public of the real estate exception.

"The administration has done certain due diligence, a demographic study, evaluating facility needs, and you've provided that information to the board, which is true," the lawyer said in the closed meeting. "Phrase it that way, as opposed to saying there has been extensive board discussions in closed session."

Telling the public about the closed meetings, he said, "invites someone to go back and look at agendas and say I don't see purchase, sale or lease of real property as a reason for a closed session."

Superintendent Brian Waterman said he was "comfortable" with Dalianis' advice. No board member objected.

Dalianis was right that someone would go back and look at the old agendas.

That is exactly what Patch did when the board released a statement about the land sale in late January 2023.

In that message, the board indicated it had been holding closed sessions for much of the last year about the land as part of its "due diligence process." The board cited the Open Meetings Act exception.

Patch looked back and found no such exception listed on the agendas from April to November 2022. The board did not start including it until after Thomas pointed out the problem.

In January 2023, Patch asked the school's spokeswoman, Mary Lin Muscolino, about the lack of notice. She did not acknowledge a violation, but she credited the attorney with the change.

"Beginning in December 2022, based on current best practices as recommended by our legal counsel, we modified our process to include more specificity, and we now list each specific exemption for the closed session discussion," Muscolino said in an email.

Left unsaid was that Thomas, not Dalianis, discovered the violations.

In summer 2023, the board replaced Dalianis' law firm.

That was after the attorney general ordered the board to release two January 2023 closed-session recordings related to the land sale. The agency said the board could discuss the setting of the price behind closed doors, but not everything else related to the sale.

Last fall, the attorney general requested the board release the recordings from closed sessions before and after eight meetings in 2022 and early 2023.

During the nine hours of meetings, no one ever questioned whether the board could speak about the sale behind closed doors. In December, the board blamed the lawyer for the violations.

Board members, the superintendent and the attorney did not return messages for comment last week.

Recordings of the closed sessions are available on the "Neighbors of Pleasantdale" YouTube page.