Bill Text: IL HB2124 | 2019-2020 | 101st General Assembly | Engrossed

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Amends the Open Meetings Act. Provides that a public body may hold a closed meeting to consider the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees, specific independent contractors, or specific volunteers (currently, only specific employees) of the public body or legal counsel for the public body, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee, independent contractor, or volunteer of the public body or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity. Effective immediately.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Passed) 2019-08-26 - Public Act . . . . . . . . . 101-0459 [HB2124 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2019-HB2124-Engrossed.html

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AN ACT concerning government.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Open Meetings Act is amended by changing
Section 2 as follows:
(5 ILCS 120/2) (from Ch. 102, par. 42)
Sec. 2. Open meetings.
(a) Openness required. All meetings of public bodies shall
be open to the public unless excepted in subsection (c) and
closed in accordance with Section 2a.
(b) Construction of exceptions. The exceptions contained
in subsection (c) are in derogation of the requirement that
public bodies meet in the open, and therefore, the exceptions
are to be strictly construed, extending only to subjects
clearly within their scope. The exceptions authorize but do not
require the holding of a closed meeting to discuss a subject
included within an enumerated exception.
(c) Exceptions. A public body may hold closed meetings to
consider the following subjects:
(1) The appointment, employment, compensation,
discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific
employees, specific individuals who serve as independent
contractors, or specific volunteers of the public body or

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legal counsel for the public body, including hearing
testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee a
specific individual who serves as an independent
contractor, or a volunteer of the public body or against
legal counsel for the public body to determine its
validity. However, a meeting to consider an increase in
compensation to a specific employee of a public body that
is subject to the Local Government Wage Increase
Transparency Act may not be closed and shall be open to the
public and posted and held in accordance with this Act.
(2) Collective negotiating matters between the public
body and its employees or their representatives, or
deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more
classes of employees.
(3) The selection of a person to fill a public office,
as defined in this Act, including a vacancy in a public
office, when the public body is given power to appoint
under law or ordinance, or the discipline, performance or
removal of the occupant of a public office, when the public
body is given power to remove the occupant under law or
ordinance.
(4) Evidence or testimony presented in open hearing, or
in closed hearing where specifically authorized by law, to
a quasi-adjudicative body, as defined in this Act, provided
that the body prepares and makes available for public
inspection a written decision setting forth its

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determinative reasoning.
(5) The purchase or lease of real property for the use
of the public body, including meetings held for the purpose
of discussing whether a particular parcel should be
acquired.
(6) The setting of a price for sale or lease of
property owned by the public body.
(7) The sale or purchase of securities, investments, or
investment contracts. This exception shall not apply to the
investment of assets or income of funds deposited into the
Illinois Prepaid Tuition Trust Fund.
(8) Security procedures, school building safety and
security, and the use of personnel and equipment to respond
to an actual, a threatened, or a reasonably potential
danger to the safety of employees, students, staff, the
public, or public property.
(9) Student disciplinary cases.
(10) The placement of individual students in special
education programs and other matters relating to
individual students.
(11) Litigation, when an action against, affecting or
on behalf of the particular public body has been filed and
is pending before a court or administrative tribunal, or
when the public body finds that an action is probable or
imminent, in which case the basis for the finding shall be
recorded and entered into the minutes of the closed

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meeting.
(12) The establishment of reserves or settlement of
claims as provided in the Local Governmental and
Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act, if otherwise the
disposition of a claim or potential claim might be
prejudiced, or the review or discussion of claims, loss or
risk management information, records, data, advice or
communications from or with respect to any insurer of the
public body or any intergovernmental risk management
association or self insurance pool of which the public body
is a member.
(13) Conciliation of complaints of discrimination in
the sale or rental of housing, when closed meetings are
authorized by the law or ordinance prescribing fair housing
practices and creating a commission or administrative
agency for their enforcement.
(14) Informant sources, the hiring or assignment of
undercover personnel or equipment, or ongoing, prior or
future criminal investigations, when discussed by a public
body with criminal investigatory responsibilities.
(15) Professional ethics or performance when
considered by an advisory body appointed to advise a
licensing or regulatory agency on matters germane to the
advisory body's field of competence.
(16) Self evaluation, practices and procedures or
professional ethics, when meeting with a representative of

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a statewide association of which the public body is a
member.
(17) The recruitment, credentialing, discipline or
formal peer review of physicians or other health care
professionals, or for the discussion of matters protected
under the federal Patient Safety and Quality Improvement
Act of 2005, and the regulations promulgated thereunder,
including 42 C.F.R. Part 3 (73 FR 70732), or the federal
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of
1996, and the regulations promulgated thereunder,
including 45 C.F.R. Parts 160, 162, and 164, by a hospital,
or other institution providing medical care, that is
operated by the public body.
(18) Deliberations for decisions of the Prisoner
Review Board.
(19) Review or discussion of applications received
under the Experimental Organ Transplantation Procedures
Act.
(20) The classification and discussion of matters
classified as confidential or continued confidential by
the State Government Suggestion Award Board.
(21) Discussion of minutes of meetings lawfully closed
under this Act, whether for purposes of approval by the
body of the minutes or semi-annual review of the minutes as
mandated by Section 2.06.
(22) Deliberations for decisions of the State

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Emergency Medical Services Disciplinary Review Board.
(23) The operation by a municipality of a municipal
utility or the operation of a municipal power agency or
municipal natural gas agency when the discussion involves
(i) contracts relating to the purchase, sale, or delivery
of electricity or natural gas or (ii) the results or
conclusions of load forecast studies.
(24) Meetings of a residential health care facility
resident sexual assault and death review team or the
Executive Council under the Abuse Prevention Review Team
Act.
(25) Meetings of an independent team of experts under
Brian's Law.
(26) Meetings of a mortality review team appointed
under the Department of Juvenile Justice Mortality Review
Team Act.
(27) (Blank).
(28) Correspondence and records (i) that may not be
disclosed under Section 11-9 of the Illinois Public Aid
Code or (ii) that pertain to appeals under Section 11-8 of
the Illinois Public Aid Code.
(29) Meetings between internal or external auditors
and governmental audit committees, finance committees, and
their equivalents, when the discussion involves internal
control weaknesses, identification of potential fraud risk
areas, known or suspected frauds, and fraud interviews

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conducted in accordance with generally accepted auditing
standards of the United States of America.
(30) Those meetings or portions of meetings of a
fatality review team or the Illinois Fatality Review Team
Advisory Council during which a review of the death of an
eligible adult in which abuse or neglect is suspected,
alleged, or substantiated is conducted pursuant to Section
15 of the Adult Protective Services Act.
(31) Meetings and deliberations for decisions of the
Concealed Carry Licensing Review Board under the Firearm
Concealed Carry Act.
(32) Meetings between the Regional Transportation
Authority Board and its Service Boards when the discussion
involves review by the Regional Transportation Authority
Board of employment contracts under Section 28d of the
Metropolitan Transit Authority Act and Sections 3A.18 and
3B.26 of the Regional Transportation Authority Act.
(33) Those meetings or portions of meetings of the
advisory committee and peer review subcommittee created
under Section 320 of the Illinois Controlled Substances Act
during which specific controlled substance prescriber,
dispenser, or patient information is discussed.
(34) Meetings of the Tax Increment Financing Reform
Task Force under Section 2505-800 of the Department of
Revenue Law of the Civil Administrative Code of Illinois.
(35) Meetings of the group established to discuss

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Medicaid capitation rates under Section 5-30.8 of the
Illinois Public Aid Code.
(d) Definitions. For purposes of this Section:
"Employee" means a person employed by a public body whose
relationship with the public body constitutes an
employer-employee relationship under the usual common law
rules, and who is not an independent contractor.
"Public office" means a position created by or under the
Constitution or laws of this State, the occupant of which is
charged with the exercise of some portion of the sovereign
power of this State. The term "public office" shall include
members of the public body, but it shall not include
organizational positions filled by members thereof, whether
established by law or by a public body itself, that exist to
assist the body in the conduct of its business.
"Quasi-adjudicative body" means an administrative body
charged by law or ordinance with the responsibility to conduct
hearings, receive evidence or testimony and make
determinations based thereon, but does not include local
electoral boards when such bodies are considering petition
challenges.
(e) Final action. No final action may be taken at a closed
meeting. Final action shall be preceded by a public recital of
the nature of the matter being considered and other information
that will inform the public of the business being conducted.
(Source: P.A. 99-78, eff. 7-20-15; 99-235, eff. 1-1-16; 99-480,

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eff. 9-9-15; 99-642, eff. 7-28-16; 99-646, eff. 7-28-16;
99-687, eff. 1-1-17; 100-201, eff. 8-18-17; 100-465, eff.
8-31-17; 100-646, eff. 7-27-18.)
Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.