Joliet Township officials questioned on transparency, spending

A Joliet Township trustee openly questioned why the agenda for a meeting on Tuesday was not posted at least 48 hours in advance and said it might constitute a violation of the state’s Open Meetings Act.

Near the outset of Tuesday’s meeting, Trustee Suzanna Ibarra said she fielded “angry calls” from residents who wanted to know why the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting wasn’t on the township website over the weekend.

“I don’t know if this is a legal meeting,” Ibarra said.

Township Clerk Alicia Morales said the agenda was posted on the township building and in The Herald-News in time. She added the township’s internet “went down” on Friday night, preventing the agenda from being posted on the township’s website.

Bryan Wellner, the township’s attorney, said state law requires only public bodies which have a website maintained by full-time staff to post an agenda online prior to meetings. He still said pubic bodies not required to post their agendas online should still do so.

Morales and Township Supervisor Angel Contreras said the township relies on a third-party to maintain its website, meaning it did not need to post the agenda online. Still, Contreras said the agenda not being posted at least two days before the meeting did not come about due to “ill will.”

“We always post it,” Contreras said in an interview, referring to the board’s agendas.

He said the third-party vendor the township uses, NJS Web Publishing Systems, posts items on the township website. Since the township’s internet was down last Friday during work hours, Contreras said, NJS was unable to post the agenda until Monday.

He also emphasized Morales’ point that the township met the legal posting requirement.

Ibarra still demanded to know who would be responsible for ensuring agendas are posted online in a timely manner and pointed to the grants the board was set to approve on Tuesday.

“You cannot give a short notice to residents, especially when there’s money involved,” she said.

The board approved more than $126,000 in grants to be distributed to 19 local organizations to support youth, veterans and other community programs. They included $2,400 to fund bus service for local after school programs, $5,000 for the Joliet Public Library’s annual Star Wars Day celebration, and $14,775 for stools and chairs for a local Veterans of Foreign Wars post.

Some residents in attendance questioned how the township decided which entities would receive the grants. Contreras said the township performed outreach to gauge interest. He said the township had given similar help to some of the programs in previous years.

Contreras also said he understood the questions about how the grants were awarded, because applications to receive the money weren’t posted on the township’s website. He said the application for the next round of grants is already on the township website.

“I mean I would be upset too, but there was no (intention to) not get the word out,” he said.

In addition, Contreras said he’d spoken with the trustees about forming committees to go through future applications and advise the board on which entities should receive the money. He said board members and community members would sit on such committees.