The Illinois Attorney General’s Office has determined the city of Aurora complied with the Open Meetings Act earlier this year during a Joint Review Board meeting connected to establishment of a tax increment financing district.
Shannon Barnaby, senior assistant attorney general in the office’s Public Access Bureau, sent a letter to the city last week saying an April 6 meeting of a Joint Review Board did not violate the Open Meetings Act.
The Joint Review Board was held in connection with establishment of the Cross Street Tax Increment Financing District, which is related to redevelopment of a former industrial warehouse at 100 Cross St. in the southwest corner of downtown.
A review board is a special meeting, convened during the process of establishing a TIF district. It is made up of all the taxing bodies in the proposed TIF district area.
In the case of the Joint Review Board for the Cross Street TIF District, it would have been made up of representatives from Kane County; Aurora Township; the West Aurora School District; the Waubonsee Community College District; the Fox Valley Park District; the Aurora Public Library District; and the city of Aurora. An eighth member from the community at large was appointed by the board itself during the meeting.
In that particular meeting, only six members were present.
Several members of the public also attended the meeting, and one of those members, Sandra Schmitt, filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office, saying the city failed to give proper notification of the Joint Review Board meeting.
She said the city failed to post notice of the meeting on both the place where the meeting was held - in the city-owned Aurora Regional Fire Museum building at New York Street and Broadway downtown - and at City Hall.
Schmitt also complained because she could not get minutes of the April 6 meeting.
The city responded to the claims in the complaint in a letter to the Public Access Counselor, denying them.
The Public Access Counselor found that in all the cases, the city acted in accordance with the Open Meetings Act. The findings were sent in a letter to the city dated July 28.
In the case of the question of posting the meeting notices, the city presented affidavits from two city employees saying they posted the notice on both a bulletin board at City Hall, and at the Fire Museum.
She said there was no evidence to counter the affidavits.
“Therefore, this office is unable to conclude that the Joint Review Board violated (the Open Meeting Act) in connection with notice for the April 6, 2023, special meeting,” the letter said.
Schmitt had asked that the Public Access Counselor make the city hold the Joint Review Board meeting again. But because the determination was that no violation occurred, the results of the meeting will stand.
In that Joint Review Board meeting, the board voted unanimously to recommend the Cross Street TIF District. A public hearing on establishment of that TIF district will be held before the City Council on Aug. 8. Another hearing, for the River-Vine TIF District, tied to the proposed 187-unit Pacifica Riverview apartment complex between the Fox River and North River Street in the city’s downtown, will be held at the same time.