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Schools

'Where's the Money?' D135 Board Argues Posting Public Records Online

What started as a suggestion for greater transparency sparked a larger argument about the role of school board members in a group.

Members of the Orland School District 135 Board of Education squared off Monday with opposing views of the district's transparency and when matters of public information should be discussed.

The argument began after board member Joe LaMargo suggested the district post all of its contracts, wages and policies online, pointing to the Village of Orland Park’s website as an example. As deputy village clerk for Orland Park, LaMargo worked on a , based on the recommendations of the Illinois Policy Institute.

“Maybe we could even have the Illinois Policy Institute do an audit to see how transparent we are,” he said. “Maybe we’re already there and we just need to organize it.”

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As a former board president and sixth-year board member, Thomas Cunningham called LaMargo’s comment “offensive.”

“I came out here six years ago and I said, ‘Where’s the money?'” Cunningham said, speaking through Board President John Carmody’s objections.

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“And you know what? For the last three or four years, we’ve got 4.0 perfect scores from outside auditing firms, so I don’t know where you’re going with this. I don’t know what the agenda is, and it’s really bothersome and it’s kind of offensive,” he said, adding that “it’s kind of embarrassing that the village has taken this long to get there.”

Carmody waited for Cunningham to finish and then told LaMargo that it “probably was more appropriate to bring it up in a finance committee meeting,” where district staff could explain how the website is laid out “and take a look at what these issues are.”

Earlier in the evening board member Mary Bragg had asked the district’s administrative staff to provide LaMargo and fellow newcomer Tina Zekich—who was absent on Monday—with all recent district contracts. Carmody took the opportunity to address this and similar Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests Bragg had made in the recent past, which Carmody said “took tremendous amount of administrative time to put it together.”

Carmody said it was best to bring FOIA requests to fellow board members first, and then Bragg accused him of attempting to silence her.

“Now if that’s hiding somebody, if that’s pushing somebody to the side then I apologize,” Carmody said. “But we don’t individually put burden on administrators. We do it as a group.”

“That’s our job for the public,” Bragg replied. “That’s what we were elected to do.”

“We do it as a group.”

“I shouldn’t have to explain why I want all board members to have in front of them the administrators’ contracts. They are entitled to see those.”

“As a group we talk about the how and why.”

“Don’t need a why,” she said.

Carmody asked administrators to hold off on Bragg’s request until the board could discuss it at the next committee meeting, and noted “that’s how the process works.”

LaMargo later reiterated his point and apologized for inadvertently starting an argument, while board member Ann Gentile respectfully requested that board members keep a respectful tone when addressing one another. The end of the argument drew smiles and winded sighs of relief.

A committee of the whole meeting is scheduled on Aug. 22, where Bragg agreed to bring up her FOIA request.

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