The city of Kankakee is in violation of the Open Meetings Act thanks to its failure to post the minutes of several October meetings on its website, according to a Dec. 17 report by the Edgar County Watchdogs, who have previously reported on this same violation.
The Watchdogs first noted that Kankakee had failed to post minutes for its October meetings in a Nov. 13 report. The Open Meetings Act says meeting minutes must be posted within the later deadline of 30 days of the meeting or within 10 days of their approval at the second subsequent regular meeting. At this point, both of those deadlines are long since passed for all of the October meetings, including regular meetings on Oct. 2, 16 and 23, and a second special meeting on Oct. 23.
“We were told by the clerk that the city was hiring someone to transcribe the meetings, to be used as the minutes,” Watchdogs co-founder John Kraft wrote in the group’s report. “That has not happened, and the city is in violation of the law. Kankakee approved hiring the transcriptionist during its Nov. 6 meeting. It appears to me they need to look for another one that can do the job more efficiently.”
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