City of Evanston
Home MenuOpen Meetings Act (OMA)
The Illinois Open Meetings Act [5 ILCS 120/] was enacted to protect the citizens' right to know the actions and reasoning of public body decisions, since the purpose of a public body is to assist the people. The statute fosters open meetings and is construed against closed meetings. The Act is important to local government because it contains the rules and requirements for all meetings, notifications, and manner of conducting them.
The Act applies to all library boards and any subsidiary bodies including but not limited to committees and subcommittees that are supported in part by tax revenues.
The Open Meetings Act defines a meeting as "any gathering of a majority of a quorum" of the members of a public body held for the purpose of meeting to discuss public business, regardless of what communication format is used. For library boards composed of six, seven, or nine members, a majority of a quorum is three members. The majority of a quorum for committees of such boards would be as few as two members.