Some Skokie residents want to know who’s who and who’s saying what during public comment times during the village’s Board of Trustees’ meetings. At the June 20 Village Board meeting, a group of Skokie residents requested officials explore posting detailed descriptions of public comments online.
Skokie School District 73.5 School Board Member Victoria Wolfinger is among the residents bringing forth these requests. Wolfinger approached the podium with a speech highlighting her frustrations regarding lackluster transparency in Skokie politics.
“I have emailed this board at least three times during the past few months requesting that all public comments submitted to the board be made public online and easily accessible,” Wolfinger said.
Wolfinger called the current process to obtain these records “cumbersome” as it requires residents to either come in person to Village Hall or submit an online Freedom of Information Act request, which may take days to fulfill.
“It becomes a burden for your constituents to (get) access to public information and it should be your duty to make public business available,” she said.
Residents say they want public comment records to better understand why people are supporting or opposing certain proposals and provide room for discussion amongst community members. Judy Mendel, who sits on the Skokie Alliance for Election Reform Steering Committee, said it could bring differing opinions together.
“It would bring transparency and an opportunity for our community to reach out to those whose opinions we may not understand or have not considered,” Mendel said.
Mendel, like Wolfinger, said she reached out to the village for public comment records. While current procedures for retrieving the records were communicated, Mendel said the hurdles to obtaining the documents were unreasonably strenuous when it could be posted on the village’s website.
In an effort to find a detailed description of public comments, Mendel said she reviewed meeting minutes where she could only see who gave a comment and the subject of the comment — not always disclosing what their position on the topic was.
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Five of the eight spoken public comments recorded in the June 5 Board of Trustees meeting minutes do not list a specific position. For example, the minutes say “Lauren Grodnicki spoke about herbicides and vegetables” and “Jerry Brozek spoke about the Ethics Commission and allegations of Trustee (James) Johnson.”
However, other entries give a lengthier description like “Michael Kroll spoke about the North Shore Channel Trail from a cyclist point-of-view regarding the intersections, walk signals and dangerous situations of drivers ignoring signals and signs.”
Written public comments are documented in the June 5 meeting minutes with entries like “Kathy Janessa commented on the Village Seal.”
Trustee Johnson responded to these concerns by saying there should be an easier way to provide access to written public comments submitted to trustees. He said the June 20 meeting had two written public comments. These comments were not read aloud for attending residents to hear.
Some other Chicagoland municipalities provide a brief synopsis of written comments at the meeting, Wolfinger said. Evanston Clerk Stephanie Mendoza typically reads a brief summary of written comments during the “communications from the city clerk” section, which immediately follows public comment, saying what the written comment was about and its stance.
Wolfinger said other municipalities offer these comments online for the public to review. Evanston publishes its written public comments online in a document separate from its meeting minutes. It can be found on the Evanston City Council’s agendas and minutes page of the city’s website.
Morton Grove has not published minutes of its Board meetings since March, but minutes for the March 14 meeting note that resident David King called the Board’s attention to news articles about the financial uncertainty of MedMen Enterprises, which has plans to build a cannabis dispensary in the village. King suggested that if MedMen attempts to sell, the village should not permit another dispensary.