Finance Committee Page 10
July 20, 2016
Alderman Cookson
| think Alderman Siegel brings up some wonderful points and | absolutely concur with the language specifying
one, two and three and specifically identifying those. As CFO Griffin was giving his description we understood
that because of other situations, HIPA and so forth that other pieces of the record of expenditures are redacted
and some way, shape or form | agree that we should be able to review those in a non-public session. | would
exclude the last part because we can make any motion in non-public, we can seal the minutes until they no
longer endanger somebody so | think we should leave the motions out of it and just say let’s take it to non-
public so that we can review the redacted at the pleasure of the Finance Committee.
Alderman Siegel
As long as there is an opportunity... mean the whole point of being able to review is if we see if something
doesn’t look proper to have a discussion such that there is the publics’ right-to-know is satisfied by giving us
the opportunity to make it public. | can’t imagine any situation in which a majority of the Finance Committee
would redact the police department but again, | think we need a safeguard. | wasn’t sure if what you were
suggesting still included that.
Alderman Cookson
If we were to go into a non-public session, once we are in non-public we can make any motion that we wanted
to. | think whatever happens in non-public happens in non-public. It’s not necessarily the motion, we can do
anything and to your point if it needs to be made public then that’s the motion that we would make in that non-
public session.
Alderman Siegel
It’s not clear though if we pass this ordinance that we would have the authority to make it public and so my
suggestion explicitly grants the Finance Committee the authority to make it public or else everyone would say
oh great they reviewed it but what happens if they said this is completely ridiculous but it’s still hidden. Again,
that’s beyond an outlier. People have a legitimate right to be concerned about this stuff whether or not it
reflects actual practice. That’s why | wanted to keep that in.
Alderman Cookson
| would withdraw any comment. | think make it as transparent as we possibly can and explicitly state it. I’m
fine with that.
Mayor Donchess
| think it will be easier when we come up with a specific proposal for this amendment to discuss the language.
Chief Lavoie
At the police commissioner’s meetings there is a non-public session but there is a difference between non-
public and it not being released. In other words there are certain timeframes...even though it is discussed in
non-public you still have to document it and it has to be released within 30 days depending on what the issue
is. | guess my question is that | don’t know the rules on the Aldermanic non-public side and my question is do
the minutes of a non-public ever get released in their entirety?
