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The Aurora City Council voted unanimously last week to ratify business done at meetings that were inadvertently partly closed.
The July 11 Committee of the Whole and regular City Council meetings were accidentally closed off to members of the public when City Hall doors automatically locked and council members were in a meeting, unaware the doors were locked, officials said.
On July 11, the City Council held its regularly scheduled council meeting, and a Committee of the Whole meeting, on the same day. The Committee of the Whole meeting was scheduled to start at 5 p.m., and the regular council meeting immediately afterward.
The Committee of the Whole was rescheduled from July 4 because of the holiday.
After the Committee of the Whole meeting, the council convened its regular meeting at 6:47 p.m. It was adjourned about 7:10 p.m.
After the adjournment, members of the council encountered members of the public who were waiting outside City Hall and said the doors were locked.
According to a memo from the city’s Law Department, the Department of Facilities Management investigated the situation and determined the City Hall doors locked automatically at 6:30 p.m.
It’s likely the rescheduling of the July 4 Committee of the Whole meeting created confusion as to whether there was a need to reprogram the timing of the door lock given the normal Committee of the Whole adjournment time.
The temporary relocation of public meetings to the fifth floor of City Hall probably also contributed to the delayed discovery of the problem, the memo said.
There were members of the public at both meetings, and at least one member of the media there, who came to the Committee of the Whole meeting and stayed for the regular council meeting.
The Law Department memo said the Open Meetings Act, as well as opinions and case law covering it, requires public bodies hold meetings at specified times and places that are convenient and open to the public.
Most of the time the issue encountered is that a meeting space is too small to accommodate all of the public. Public bodies are supposed to find a place big enough to transact business and accommodate the public.
But the Law Department said there are no reported opinions that have addressed the situation that occurred with the inadvertently locked door. While the locked doors kept some people out, some people did attend, and the meetings were live streamed on the internet, the memo said.
The customary practice of the Public Access Counselor, an arm of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office that deals with Open Meetings Act complaints, is to have the public body ratify its actions during a subsequent meeting held in accordance with the Open Meetings Act.
That is what the council did July 25.
City officials said they are taking steps to ensure the doors don’t lock again before a meeting is finished. In addition, officials said they are taking an extra step of adding a new camera outside City Hall with a buzzer.
The camera will allow someone inside City Hall to see if someone cannot get in.
“People can buzz if they’re not able to get in,” said Michael Pegues, the city’s chief information officer.