AG: City broke meetings law
Man who was kicked out of public meeting now wants an apology
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| Jim Wise |
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MORRISON – The city of Morrison broke state law by kicking out a resident from a public meeting in July, the state attorney general’s office says.
The attorney general issued a nonbinding opinion this week. Governing bodies don’t have the right to order people to leave meetings, unless they’re disruptive, Assistant Attorney General Tola Sobitan said Thursday.
On July 12, City Administrator Jim Wise asked Richard Ayres to leave a meeting of the Historic Preservation Commission. Ayres declined, so Wise had a police officer order him out.
The officer warned Ayres that he would be arrested if he didn’t leave. Ayres complied.
At the time, the city told Ayres he would be barred from attending meetings at City Hall, but Wise rescinded that order days later. Ayres, a critic of city government, has regularly attended meetings.
On Aug. 28, Ayres filed a complaint with the attorney general, alleging the city broke the Open Meetings Act by kicking him out of the meeting.
The city never asserted that Ayres was disruptive at the commission meeting, which is open to the public.
Rather, Wise said Ayres displayed “boorish and inappropriate behavior” at City Hall earlier in the day. In a letter to the attorney general, Wise said an employee told him that she felt threatened by Ayres’ actions.
She later broke down and cried, Wise said.
“From my investigation, I was able to determine that while Mr. Ayres was present in City Hall, he was perceived by employees of the city as acting belligerently and condescending,” Wise said in the letter.
He didn’t provide any details on what Ayres said or did.
Wise and Mayor Roger Drey, who later publicly backed the administrator’s decision, couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday.
In his statement to the attorney general, Ayres said he was speaking with the mayor during his earlier visit when an employee kept interrupting his conversation. Ayres asked her why she was so rude to him. She said it was because he was rude to her, he said.
Ayres said he responded that he didn’t think he was rude to her, but “I guess that is where we stand then.”
Ayres said he would like an apology from the city. He said the removal from the meeting hurt his reputation.
“I was on the list to volunteer at a nursing home,” he said. “When this came about, they said they wouldn’t use me.”
He said he also stepped down from his position at the Masonic Lodge in Chadwick as a result.
Alderman Leo Sullivan said he saw no reason why Ayres shouldn’t have been allowed into the July 12 meeting.
“As long as someone is there as a concerned citizen and has good conduct, he should be allowed at meetings,” Sullivan said.
He said Wise should have known that he couldn’t bar someone from a meeting.
In late July, Alderman Ron Kallemeyn asked Wise during a council meeting why he ordered Ayres out of the commission meeting.
Wise said he would discuss the issue with Kallemeyn later in private.
Kallemeyn, who is running in next month’s primary for state’s attorney in Whiteside County, declined to comment on the matter. He said he didn’t know the details of the complaint.
Related: Alderwoman still not satisfied with access to city documents
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