The Legislative Scene

Holding Public Meetings by Telephone. Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner, in a formal legal opinion, has advised that meetings of public bodies conducted by telephone are permissible under the Illinois Open Meetings Act, provided that the public and news representatives are given full access to the discussions, in accordance with the law.

Fahner, in response to a question raised by the Chairman of the State Board of Elections J. Phil Gilbert, observed "furtherance of the goals of the Open Meetings Act requires the inclusion of telephone conference calls in the definition of meeting under the Act.""To do otherwise" he said "would allow public officials to circumvent the Act merely because the forum for their discussion of public business is telephonic. Such a result would do violence to both the spirit and intent of the Open Meetings Act. For these reasons, it is my opinion that a telephone conference call involving a majority of a quorum of a public body held for the purpose of discussing public business must be considered a meeting under the Open Meetings Act."

Profile of the 83rd General Assembly
Senate				House
No. of members				No. of members
Senators	R	D	Total	Representatives	R	D	Total
Incumbents	19	24	43	Incumbents	35	53	88
Moved from				Moved from
House to Senate	7	6	13	Senate to House	—	1	1
Previous service				Previous service
but not in				but not in
1981-82	—	1	1	1981-82	—	—	—
New Members	—	2	2	New Members	13	16	29
	26	33	59		48	70	118
	% of members				% of members
Senators	R	D	Total	Representatives	R	D	Total
Incumbents	32.2	40.7	72.9	Incumbents	29.7	44.9	74.6
Moved from				Moved from
House to Senate	11.9	10.2	22.0	Senate to House	—	0.8	0.8
Previous service				Previous service
but not in				but not in
1981-82	—	1.7	1.7	1981-82	—	—	—
New Members	—	3.4	3.4	New Members	11.0	13.6	24.6
	44.1	55.9	100.0		40.7	59.3	100.0

Illinois Parks and Recreation 32 January/February 1983