The Open Meetings Act does not allow for a lot of leeway. This is the $30,000 lesson the University learned last week after five current and former SIU Board of Trustee members were ordered to pay the attorney of Jo Ann Argersinger for violating the act on two occasions relating to the former chancellor's termination.
On June 5, 1999, the board fired Argersinger, igniting protests and legal action levied at BOT members. Argersinger believes the fateful firing was really made during a closed meeting on May 26, rather than in an open meeting as required by the Open Meetings Act.
While it still is not clear if this is the case, the defendants did admit that a notice was not filed correctly in the board's office and that the meeting was incorrectly identified as an Executive Committee Meeting. This would mean that only three BOT members, those in the executive committee, would be in attendance. Instead, all five members attended the closed meeting.
In accordance with the Open Meetings Act, trustees are allowed to close a BOT meeting for discussion of employment, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees of a public body. However, notice of the meeting must be given two days in advance during an open meeting.
Besides the financial slap, Jackson County Circuit Judge David Watt ordered that the board and its executive committee adopt a proper agenda for notices and closures.
Surely the longtime board members already know the proper agenda and filing procedures. In making such a controversial decision in firing the chancellor, board members should have been dotting every "i" and crossing every "t."
This is easily the most controversial decision the board has made in recent years and it's disturbing to find out they couldn't cover all their bases.
The admittance of guilt in this smaller form of misconduct could lead to the perception that the board is responsible for greater wrongdoing, and further implicate the BOT in the eyes of the public as Argersinger's final lawsuit against the board unfolds. She is suing the board in federal in an attempt to be reinstated as the SIUC chancellor, and is seeking $1 million in damages. The trial is tentatively scheduled for Aug. 5.
The current $30,000 settlement will come out of SIU President James Walker's risk management fund, and not from the Carbondale campus. However, any amount used to pay for this easily avoided and embarrassing incident is a hard bite to swallow, especially when people are losing their jobs because of this budgetary chokehold.
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
