By Irene Romulo

Members of the public should have access to information and their government—-especially during a pandemic. While local governments have found inexpensive ways to ensure their constituents remain informed, the Town of Cicero does not make it easy for residents to safely attend town board meetings where crucial decisions are made.

Although, the Town of Cicero Board of Trustees will once again provide a call-in option for the November 24 board meeting, following new statewide mitigations imposed by Governor J.B. Pritzker, this option should have never gone away.

Since September, the board had stopped providing a way for residents to virtually attend the town board meetings. Excluding people who, because of Cicero’s high COVID-19 positivity rates, did not want to risk attending in-person meetings.

Cicero trustees during the in-person town hall meeting on Oct 27th, 2020 where our reporter witnessed COVID-19 regulations not being strictly enforced. Taken by Irene Romulo.

Cicero Independiente asked for a call-in option multiple times via email and via public comment, but our requests were consistently denied.

“We suspended the call-in option several meetings back and we continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation,” said the town spokesperson via email when this reporter requested a call-in option prior to the November 10 board meeting.

At the Town board meetings, trustees vote on important ordinances and resolutions that affect Cicero residents. These can range from deciding which vendor will receive Town business, whether or not the Town of Cicero will cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, requests for federal money to deal with the pandemic and whether any laws already on the books need to be changed. The board also votes on the budget, which inevitably affects our taxes.

This is also a meeting where concerned Cicero residents can ask questions directly to the board and the Town president or simply make a public comment about anything.

The Open Meetings Act (OMA) is the state law that requires that public bodies make their meetings “convenient and open” for members of the public. Town of Cicero Board meetings are public meetings that should be following OMA guidelines. Guidance from the Public Access Counselor (PAC) within the Office of the Illinois Attorney General’s office, the agency tasked with investigating OMA violations, issued guidance in July about public meetings. In an emailed statement, the PAC confirmed that the guidance is still valid.

The guidance states that public bodies should exercise “good judgment and discretion” to help curb the spread of COVID-19. Nothing in the guidance prohibits public bodies from continuing to offer a remote way for people to attend public meetings. In fact, the guidance acknowledges that members of the public may be “prevented from attending public meetings because of...general instruction to remain at home during the pandemic” and public bodies are therefore urged to provide remote access.

Cicero continues to have some of the highest COVID-19 positivity rates. Journalists, residents and anyone who is interested should be able to attend these public meetings without having to risk being exposed to the coronavirus.

The next board meeting will be held on November 24 at 10 a.m. Members of the public wishing to attend can do so by dialing 1-503-300-6863, dial access code 345116. The full agenda can be found here.

Members of the public who cannot attend but who want their statements to be read into the record can email the Town Clerk at marias@thetownofcicero.com.

Irene Romulo is a contributing reporter and editor at Cicero Independiente.

What is an editorial? An editorial gives an opinion on a timely issue. They are different than our reported stories because they often promote a single viewpoint, are more personal in tone and may be written in the first-person. We still fact-check them to make sure that we are delivering accurate information.