One of many yards signs advocating for Trailside Museum to be named in honor of Virginia Moe. (Photo provided)

The Public Access Bureau of the Illinois Attorney General’s office issued a non-binding opinion recently that a committee of the Cook County Forest Preserve District violated the state’s Open Meetings Act.

Supervising Attorney Teresa Lim of the Public Access Bureau said the violations occurred in the process of deliberations on an application to change the name of the district’s Trailside Museum in River Forest to honor longtime employee Virginia Moe.

Forest Preserve District General Superintendent Arnold Randall had denied applicant Jane Morocco’s request to re-name the Trailside Museum in a March 16 letter. Morocco subsequently filed a FOIA seeking all documents related to the committee’s deliberations. Those documents, she contended, showed that the district had violated the OMA in its decision-making process.

In April,’ Morocco filed a Request for Review to the Public Access Bureau, alleging that the Naming Committee had conducted meetings “without following the requirements of OMA,” including no adequate public notice, and not taking formal votes on any decisions by the committee.

In an 11-page letter dated July 21, Lim informed Tony Fioretti, Deputy Chief Attorney of Forest Preserve District of Cook County, that several 2022 meetings of the district’s Naming Committee had been conducted improperly and in violation of the OMA.

Lim noted that the Forest Preserve District characterized its Naming Committee as “merely an informal advisory committee.” Lim said the committee, all members of which were appointed by General Superintendent Randall, and most of whom are forest preserve district employees, was in fact more than advisory, and played a key role in assessing and rejecting naming and renaming applications.

“The clearly assigned responsibilities and requirements for composition, quorum, and votes illustrate the formality of the Committee,” Lim found. “Because OMA defines ‘public body’ to include advisory bodies of a public body, and because the Committee exhibits key characteristics of an advisory body, this office concludes that the Committee is subject to the requirements of OMA.”

The Naming Committee, Lim found, “decides which applications to present to the General Superintendent for further consideration,” and that those denied requests “do not appear to receive further consideration,” de facto making the committee’s decisions final and nonappealable.

While Lim found that, while a more legally enforceable “binding opinion” was not required, she did “request” that the Naming Committee “conduct all future meetings in accordance with the provisions of OMA,” including advance public notice of its meetings, keeping written minutes of those meetings, and “provide members of the public with an opportunity to address Committee members.” Lim also requested that Committee members undergo OMA electronic training administered by her office.

In her ruling, Lim noted that, according to the Forest Preserves’s Permanent Naming Policy, committee decisions “are to be made based on a majority vote of the members.” However, no record of any formal vote was provided in the district’s response to Morocco’s FOIA.

“That was one of the main things,” Morocco said. “There was never even a vote.”

Morocco said that nearly 1,600 people have signed petitions calling for Moe’s name to replace former County Commissioner Harold Tyrrell’s on the museum.

“This whole (process) never gave the people supporting a name change a chance to speak,” Morocco said of the district’s deliberations. “I don’t even know that they looked at the (name change request) packet we submitted.”

“You had a small group of people sitting around a table making a decision for everybody else.”

Morocco said she and others will continue advocating for the renaming Trailside in Moe’s honor, but not necessarily through the Forest Preserve District. The 17 elected County Board commissioners also fill the roles of forest preserve commissioners.

“Our next move is to call all the (Cook County) commissioners,” Morocco said.