Buffalo Grove Candidates Forum Still On, One Participant Confirmed

Updated 4:30 p.m. March 6: All Four Buffalo Grove Trustee Candidates to Participate in Forum

Thursday’s Buffalo Grove candidates forum has not been canceled, but it could be a party of one.

The forum, organized by Save Buffalo Grove, was originally going to showcase all four trustee contenders. The names of current trustees will be on the April 9 ballot, while Jeff Battinus is running as a write-in candidate.

At the advice of Buffalo Grove’s attorney, the three incumbents backed out of forum this week after questions arose about whether the event complied with the Open Meetings Act. The Act requires governing bodies to comply with a series of requirements when three or more elected officials convene. 

Because those requirements will not be met for this week's forum, up to two of the current trustees could participate.

Leon Gopon, a Save Buffalo Grove leader, said Tuesday that the forum will take place regardless of how many candidates decide to attend.

“We’re going to have a one-man event,” he said, after confirming that Battinus will attend. “We’ll see if any of the other candidates show up.”

Battinus said he’s prepared to share his thoughts with anyone who attends the event, which will begin at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Village Bar & Grill. 

“I will be attending, regardless of whether or not my opponents choose to attend,” Battinus wrote in an email to Patch.

Ottenheimer, Sussman and Stein could not immediately be reached Tuesday night for comment as to whether any of them would participate in the forum, but all three previously said they did not plan to attend.

Before all three could gather for a single event, the Village of Buffalo Grove would have to call a special board meeting, Village Manager Dane Bragg said. A special meeting could be scheduled at the request of the village president or three board members.

The meeting — even if called for the purpose of a candidates forum — would then need to follow protocol, Bragg said. That would include publishing a meeting notice at least 48 hours before the event, taking meeting minutes and offering a public comment period.

“Thus, while there may be a legal solution, it is not necessarily practical in its application,” Bragg wrote in an email.

Those requirements aside, and generally speaking, it would not violate the Open Meetings Act if three board members gathered for such an event, said a spokeswoman from the Illinois Attorney General’s office.

“Without knowing the full facts of this situation, the Open Meetings Act in general is focused on deliberative discussions of public business of a public body. So if the political forum is limited to the several candidates addressing their qualifications and personal platforms, as opposed to specific discussion between the three board members about actions and current business before the board, it is generally not a violation of the Open Meetings Act. The emphasis is on the discussion between the board members as opposed to a board member expressing a political platform,” spokeswoman Natalie Bauer said.