FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 4, 2016

Activists File for Injunction to Force Chicago

City Council to Abide by Open Meetings Act
Closed Meetings Used to Jam Through TIF Subsidies, & Other
Unpopular Measures
CHICAGO - Plaintiffs in a suit demanding that the Chicago City Council abide by the Illinois Open
Meetings Act (OMA) recently filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to force the City to abide
by the Act at its next meeting scheduled for September 14.
Yesterday Circuit Court Judge Diane J. Larsen ordered that a hearing be held on the motion for
the preliminary injunction to force the Councils abidance with the OMA, two days ahead of the
Council meeting. The hearing will be held at 10:30 am, September 12 in Room 2405 of the Daley
Center, 50 W. Washington Blvd.
Plaintiffs and longtime LGBTQ activists Andy Thayer and Rick Garcia allege in their suit that the City
Council violates the Open Meetings Act (OMA) by preventing members of the general public from
attending Council meetings by packing the gallery and giving privileged entry to invited guests who mostly
or entirely fill the council chambers despite showing up much later than members of the general public,
effectively making the meetings closed (5 ILCS 120/1, and Sec. 2.01). As the OMA states, The
provisions for exceptions to the open meeting requirements shall be strictly construed against closed
meetings.
Thayer and Garcia further allege that the Council also violates the OMA by allowing no provision for public
comment at Council meetings Any person shall be permitted an opportunity to address public officials
under the rules established and recorded by the public body. (5 ILCS 120/2.06, subsection g).
Yesterday Judge Diane J. Larsen ordered that she will hold a hearing on the motion for the injunction two
days before the next Council meeting. Judge Larsens hearing will be held at 10:30 am, September 12 at
the Daley Center, 50 W. Washington Street, Room 2405.
Thayer and several other activists tried to enter the May 18th Council meeting to witness debate and
votes on a deeply unpopular Tax Increment Financing (TIF) bill which would funnel $16 million in taxpayer
money to subsidize a private developer to erect luxury hi-rise towers on prime real estate next to Lincoln
Park. The luxury Uptown development would be within yards of many homeless sleeping underneath
Lake Shore Drive viaducts who desperately need affordable housing alternatives.
The anti-TIF activists, despite arriving an hour and half before the scheduled start of the May 18 meeting,
were not allowed to begin entering the Council meeting until an hour after it was scheduled to begin. At
that time a handful were allowed to enter, with several other activists who had lined up early to attend still
blocked from attending.
As Edward Burke, the politically connected, powerful chairman of the City Council Finance Committee put
it at the May 18th Council meeting, This (TIF) is an urgent matter we need to rush thru.
The reason for their rush? On July 23, the 2015 Affordable Requirements Ordinance (ARO) would take
effect, forcing all TIF-funded developments to have a minimum of 20% affordable housing units. The
Uptown TIF development has under 3% affordable units, less than even the 5% required under the old
ARO ordinance.
If the judge finds that the City Council meetings violated the OMA, she could penalize the city for its
breaking of the law by invalidating all of the decisions made at the meetings covered by the suit, the May

and June Council meetings, including the unpopular Uptown TIF subsidy for luxury housing. The court
may grant such relief as it deems appropriate, including...declaring null and void any final action taken at
a closed meeting in violation of this Act. 5 ILCS 120/3, Sec. 3(c)
The Illinois Open Meetings Act requires that public bodies, of which the Chicago City Council is the most
powerful in the State governed by the Act, to maintain access to the public, including the right to attend
and comment on their proceedings, said co-plaintiff Andy Thayer.
The fact that the Council used their closed meetings to bogart thru a deeply unpopular TIF -- taxpayer
subsidy for luxury hi-rises for the wealthy -- illustrates the very essence of why the Open Meetings Act
exists. While most Illinoisans struggle with stagnant wages and the rising cost of living expressed in
higher taxes, housing and health care costs, legislators of both parties try to shield themselves from
public outrage as they ram through measures to help the already wealthy and well-connected.
For Information: Andy Thayer, LGBTliberation@aol.com
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