OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

STATE OF ILLINOIS

KWAME RAOUL
ATTORNEY GENERAL

March 29, 2021

Via electronic mail

The Honorable Gary Grasso
Mayor
Village of Burr Ridge
7660 County Line Road
Burr Ridge, Illinois 60527
ggrasso@burr-ridge.gov

RE: OMA Request for Review – 2021 PAC 67540

Dear Mayor Grasso:

The Public Access Bureau has received a Request for Review under section 3.5(a)
of the Open Meetings Act (OMA) (5 ILCS 120/3.5(a) (West 2018)) from Matthew Topic, on
behalf of Trustee Zach Mottl, alleging that the Village of Burr Ridge Board of Trustees (Board)
violated OMA in connection with a modification to a policy or ordinance.

The Public Access Bureau has determined that further action is warranted. In
order to evaluate this matter, we request that the Board or its representative respond in writing to
Mr. Topic's allegation that the Board improperly took final action outside of an open meeting to
change the policy or ordinance by reaching a consensus though a poll. In your response, please
clarify if the policy or ordinance has been changed or amended and whether Board members
were polled. If so, please provide a detailed explanation of how the poll was conducted and
copies of any related communications. If the Board took final action to amend the policy or
ordinance in a public meeting, please provide this office with copies of the agenda, minutes
(draft form, if necessary), and any verbatim recordings of the meeting for our confidential
review.

As required by section 3.5(b) of OMA (5 ILCS 120/3.5(b) (West 2018)), please

provide this information to our office within 7 working days after receipt of this letter. As we
conduct our review of this matter, we will notify you if we need to review additional records or
information. Please note that under the Act, we are required to forward a copy of any response

500 South Second Street, Springfield, Illinois 62701 • (217) 782-1090 • TTY: (877) 844-5461 • Fax: (217) 782-7046
100 West Randolph Street, Chicago, Illinois 60601 • (312) 814-3000 • TTY: (800) 964-3013 • Fax: (312) 814-3806
601 South University Ave., Carbondale, Illinois 62901 • (618) 529-6400 • TTY: (877) 675-9339 • Fax: (618) 529-6416
The Honorable Gary Grasso
March 29, 2021
Page 2

from a public body to the requestor and provide the requester an opportunity to reply. 5 ILCS
120/3.5(c) (West 2018). The Act also permits a public body to provide a redacted version of any
response for release to the requester. If you believe that other documents or information would
be helpful to us as we review the issues, you may submit additional records or affidavits.

If you have any questions, you may contact me at (217) 782-9054,

sborland@atg.state.il.us, or the Springfield address on the first page of this letter.

Very truly yours,

SUZANNE DENNIS BORLAND

Assistant Attorney General
Public Access Bureau

cc: Via electronic mail

Mr. Matthew Topic
Loevy & Loevy
311 North Aberdeen Street, 3rd Floor
Chicago, Illinois 60607
matt@loevy.com
Samuelson, Dolores

From: Public Access

Sent: Monday, March 22, 2021 2: 10 PM
To: Public Access
Subject: FW: Request for Review: Village of Burr Ridge' s OMA violation
Attachments: OMA - political sign ordinance. pdf

67540 Initial docs

From: Rachel Eun < eun@loevy. com>

Sent: Monday, March 22, 2021 10: 15 AM
To: Public Access < PAccess@atg. state. il. us>
Cc: Matt Topic < matt@loevy. com>; Zach Mottl < zachm@atlas- tool. com>
Subject: Request for Review: Village of Burr Ridge' s OMA violation

Hi Ms. Pratt,

Our firm represents Mr. Zach Mottl ( cc -ed in this email). Mr. Mottl is submitting the attached request for
review regarding Village of Burr Ridge' s OMA violations.

Please let us know if you need additional information from us.

Thank you.

Best,
Rachel Eun, Paralegal
She/ her/ hers)
LOEVY & LOEVY
311 N. Aberdeen, 3rd Floor
Chicago, IL 60607
312- 243- 5900 ( main office)
https:// loevy. com/

1
LOEVY & LOEVY
311 N. Aberdeen St., 3rd Floor, Chicago, Illinois 60607

March 20, 2021

Sarah Pratt
Public Access Counselor

Office of the Attomey General

500 S. 2nd Street
Springfield, Illinois 62701
publicaccess@atg. state. il. us

Via Email

Re: Village of Burr Ridge' s OMA Violation

Dear Ms. Pratt,

Our firm represents Zach Mottl. The purpose of this letter is to document Village of Burr
Ridge' s (" the Village") variety of Open Meetings Act (" OMA") violations for the PAC' s review.

Mr. Mottl alleges that the Village violated OMA by discussing a matter of public
business outside of a public meeting in violation of Section 1. 02 of OMA and taking a final
action outside of a public meeting in violation of Section 2( e) of OMA.

On March 8, 2021, Patch reported that the Village " changed its rules dealing with
political signs."
David Giuliani, An ' Arbitrary' Rules Change in Burr Ridge?, Patch ( Mar. 8,
2021), https:// patch. com/ illinois/ burrridge/ arbitrary- rules- change- burr- ridge. The article states
that according to the Village' s February 26, 2020 weekly newsletter, the Village stated that its
policy was to " take ` inappropriately placed signs' to Village Hall and give owners seven days to
pick them up or they would be disposed of." Id. There was some inconsistency on how long the
owners would have to pick up the political signs that were collected by the Village. A week
later, the Village' s newsletter reiterated the seven- day deadline, but the Village added in bold,
Political signs will not be retrievable until after an election is over." Id.

Mr. Giuliani noticed that the Village' s ordinance itself does not include any reference to
seven- or l0 -day deadlines to pick up the signs collected by the Village. Mr. Giuliani asked the
Mayor of the Village ( Mayor Grasso) on the recent rule change and how the Village came about
doing so. In a phone call with Mr. Giuliani, Mayor Grasso stated that " he decided to change the
rules." Id. Mayor Grasso added that the Village Administrator " polled the trustees who are not
running in the April 6 election about their views of the policy change" and a consensus of
trustees supported the change. Id.

As such, the Village board discussed a matter of public business, amending the Village' s
ordinance regarding political signs, without complying with the Open Meetings Act. Section
1. 02 of OMA defines " meeting" as " any gathering, whether in person or by video or audio
conference, telephone call, electronic means ( such as, without limitation, electronic mail,
electronic chat, and instant messaging) or other means of contemporaneous interactive
communication, of a majority of to quorum of the members of a public body held for the purpose
of
discussing public business." 5 ILCS 120/ 1. 02

Further, Section 2( e) explicitly states that "[ n] o 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."
5 ILCS 120/ 2( e).
In clear violation of Section 2( e) of OMA, the Village apparently changed an
ordinance by taking a poll among the trustees without taking a vote in an open meeting.

For the above reasons, Mr. Mott! asks the PAC to determine that the Village has violated
OMA through a binding opinion.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Matthew Topic