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TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: The Law Department
DATE: July 10, 2020
SUBJECT:
The ratification of actions taken by the City Council and its committees during meetings conducted between April 1, 2020, and June 11, 2020.
PURPOSE:
To foreclose any possibility of challenges to actions taken by the Council or its committees during the COVID-19 pandemic prior to the General Assembly specifically authorizing remote meetings.
BACKGROUND:
On March 16, 2020, Governor Pritzker issued Executive Order 2020-07, which was the 5th executive order he issued in response to the COVID-19 crisis. In the Order, the Governor declared that portions of the Open Meetings Act requiring or relating to in-person attendance by members of a public body were suspended during the duration of his March 9, 2020, disaster declaration. Thereafter, public bodies throughout the State, including those in the City began to conduct their business meetings by remote means, including the Zoom web conferencing platform. Over the course of the next two months, the Governor issued successive disaster declarations and "stay-at-home" orders that required public bodies to continue to conduct their business meetings without the physical presence of a quorum. The orders cited the "emergency powers" afforded the Governor by the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act as the source of his authority to suspend portions of the Open Meeting Act.
On June 12, 2020, Public Act 101-0640 became law. Public Act 101-0640, among other things, amended the Open Meetings Act to expressly allow public bodies to conduct meetings without the physical presence of a quorum. Prior to June 12, 2020, no statutory authority existed for public bodies to meet entirely by remote means. From March 16 through June 12, 2020, the Governor's disaster proclamation and executive orders were arguably the only source of legal authority to conduct remote meetings.
On Thursday, July 2, 2020, the Circuit Court of the Fourth Judicial Ci...
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