Letter to the Editor: Park Board Should 'Quit Hiding from the Public'

HEADLINE FROM LEDGER SENTINEL 2/9/12
 
Park board advised not to keep meeting tapes.  Attorney “in favor of openness,” but tells board tapes pose “real risk”

It seems that the recordings could become the subject of a Freedom of Information request.  OH NO.  To provide the public with a complete and unedited transcript of what was actually said at a meeting as opposed to sanitized minutes of the meeting would be a burden on the Board employees.
 
I read the minutes of the meeting at the Little White Schoolhouse on October 26, 2011.  I was also at that meeting.  The minutes in no way describe what took place regarding the humiliation of Commissioner Wass.  
 
The board attorney is quoted in the Ledger Sentinel as saying he is in “favor of openness and transparency and all that stuff”.  Well good for him.  What means “all that stuff?”  That must be a legal term lawyers learn in law school.
 
The taped recording could also be used as a litigation tool.  Well, OK.  If what was said at the meeting is legal and proper the recording would be an excellent tool for the defense of board actions.  If all of ones conversations are proper, there should be no opposition to being recorded.  Police Department Communications are all taped and retained.  Court hearings, trials, motions are also all recorded and kept forever. The Board already records and retains the recording of all conversation in Executive Session.  

How much harder can it be to also record and retain the conversation of the public meeting?   What is wrong with being accountable for what one says?  I think it is time for the pubic to expect sunshine type rules to apply to all governmental bodies and agents.  It works very well in Florida.  Quit hiding from the public.
 
I guess, in the final analysis the Board will decide to either keep the recordings or not. In case they do not, I would encourage Mr. Wass and anyone else at the meetings to record the meeting. The Board attorney is quoted as saying if anyone records the meetings using audio or video equipment, the recordings would belong to the recorder, not the Board.  
 
It seems Don Craven, an attorney with the Illinois Press Association supports the Ledger Sentinel position of recording and retention of the recordings of the meetings as a legal and permissible thing to do.
 
Richard B. Ayers, Oswego