Attorney General Ruling Clears Oak Lawn Village Board Members of Open Meetings Act Violation

A ruling by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office has determined that a majority of along with the village clerk did not violate the Open Meetings Act when they held two informational meetings for residents last January.

More than 200 residents signed affidavits stating that their signatures had been forged.

A complaint filed by Mayor Dave Heilmann with the Illinois Attorney General on March 7 claimed that village elected officials had violated Illinois law by not giving proper notice that the meetings were being held. The Open Meetings Act defines a “meeting” as any gathering of a majority or quorum of the members of a government body held for the purpose of discussing public business.

Trustees Alex Oleniczak (Dist. 2), Bob Streit (Dist. 3), Tom Duhig (Dist. 4) and Tom Phelan (Dist. 6) attended the informational gatherings, along with Village Clerk Jane Quinlan.

The mayor and trustees Jerry Hurckes (Dist. 1) and Carol Quinlan (Dist. 5), however, were not invited.

The village clerk and four trustees said they mailed out hundreds of letters at their own expense to residents whose names appeared on the petition. Quinlan also paid for the gatherings atwith her own personal check.

It was Quinlan who alerted the aforementioned village trustees of the possibility of fraud when she saw that her son and daughter-in-law’s signatures appeared to have been forged on the petition.

She also checked with an attorney friend to make sure village elected officials were not violating the Open Meeting’s Act.

“I did my homework before I rented Stony Creek,” Quinlan said. “We were aware of what we could discuss.”

In the village’s response to the Attorney General’s request for more information, Quinlan said trustees discussed no village business at the meetings. Also included in the village’s response was an affidavit by Wayne Gray, an appointed planning and development commissioner, who was brought in as an observer of both meetings at Stony Creek.

Gray said he signed an affidavit supporting the village’s response.

“Trustees asked residents for their name and address and pulled the page out from the petition,” Gray said. “I personally talked to over 30 people on both days who indicated that it wasn’t their signature. They signed the affidavit and went on their merry way.”

Heilmann maintains in his complaint that the trustees took action at the Stony Creek meetings by having members of the public sign affidavits.

A letter dated Aug. 18 from Attorney General Madigan’s office concluded that the meetings “were not convened for the purpose of conducting a discussion among Trustees regarding the petition and the potentially fraudulent signatures, but to ascertain facts concerning the validity of signatures on the petition.” (Read the entire ruling accompanying this report.)

Touting the ruling, Quinlan sent out her own news release via her personal email, stating the mayor “provided questionable information to the attorney general that was not based in fact.”

Heilmann called the village clerk’s interpretation that the Illinois Attorney General ruled against him a “mischaracterization.”

“They don’t rule against someone,” the mayor said. “The fact someone would send a release characterizing me like that is totally inaccurate.”