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         November 7, 2010        

Yet another scandal by
Buffalo Grove Village Clerk

There is a new scandal in the evolving dysfunction of Buffalo Grove Village Clerk Jan Sirabian.  Once again, it involves the Minutes of a Committee of the Whole meeting attended by the Village Trustees.

This time, however, it doesn't involve just the Village Trustees.  This time, Jan disrespects the top teenage scholars of the community by completely blowing off the substance of their superlative accomplishments.

The Buffalo Grove Trustees met as a Committee of the Whole on October 25th.  The main purpose of the meeting was a Civics Forum by students from the two public high schools that serve Buffalo Grove residents.

Jan's Minutes of the two-hour meeting that took place on October 25th consist of one page.  The substantive part of the minutes spans all of five sentences to cover everything that was said during a lengthy two-hour meeting.

According to Jan's Minutes, the students from Buffalo Grove High School and Stevenson High School "presented the ideas that they have come up with to deal with the topic of "Texting While Driving."  Jan refuses, however, to make a record of any of those fabulous ideas in her Minutes.

What were those ideas, Jan?  By failing to record any of those ideas in the Minutes, those ideas are gone, and lost forever.  Nobody who didn't attend the meeting will ever know what the ideas were which the students spent so much time and effort developing and articulating

Jan's cop-out for why she refuses to record what the Open Meetings Act refers to as a "summary of discussion" is that, legally, she is not required to do so, even though the spirit of the law is that she certainly should do so.  After 31 years as Village Clerk, Jan has decided that she can take Buffalo Grove residents for granted and get away snubbing the residents of Buffalo Grove by doing the bare minimum required by law, rather than, as the Illinois Attorney General put it last week, "including more detail in their meeting minutes in order to ensure a complete record of public business conducted at those meetings."

At last Monday's Village Board Meeting, I objected to the approval of Jan's Minutes of the October 25th meeting.  I asked the Village Board to reject approval of Jan's Minutes for that meeting and direct her to report in her Minutes of that meeting what the ideas were that our young scholars had come up with to address the problem of texting while driving.  The Village Board heard my concerns and declined my proposal.

The Village Board approved Jan's Minutes as is, because they know that Jan comes in very handy when the Village Board wants to conceal, rather than reveal, what the Board is doing, particularly when it comes to who wants to raise your taxes and who doesn't.  They don't want you to know who is proposing to raise your taxes because, after all, there's a municipal election coming up in five months.

On April 5, 2011, the voters of Buffalo Grove will have the opportunity to elect me to replace Jan as Buffalo Grove Village Clerk.  Let me know if you'd like to help me make that happen.  There are things that we can do, working together, to make that happen.

Previous Rob Sherman News stories about this subject matter:

Thursday, Nov. 4:  Public Access Counselor finds BG Clerk failed to provide sufficient detail in meeting Minutes

Monday, November 1:  Complaint filed with Attorney General against Buffalo Grove Village Clerk

Monday, October 18:  Illinois Public Access Counselor condemns Minutes of gov't meetings that lack specificity

Thursday, October 14:  Village Clerk says losing keys to Village Hall is no big deal

Tuesday, October 12:  Sherman declares candidacy for Buffalo Grove Village Clerk

Monday, October 11:  Sherman renews call for Buffalo Grove Village Clerk to resign

Wednesday, October 6:  Term Limits of 32 years proposed for Buffalo Grove elected officials

Tues, 10/5: New scandal regarding Buffalo Grove "Minutes": Was it Finance Committee or Comm of the Whole?

Monday, October 4:  Buffalo Grove Village Clerk doesn't get it in dispute over meeting Minutes

Sunday, October 3:  Buffalo Grove Trustee backs Sherman in dispute over meeting Minutes

Saturday, October 2:  Illinois Open Meetings Act backs Sherman in dispute over Buffalo Grove meeting Minutes

Friday, October 1:  Sherman to challenge Minutes of Buffalo Grove Committee of the Whole meeting

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