LAW SOUGHT ON MEETINGS OF DRUG UNIT

Saying the law is murky on whether the new director of an areawide
drug squad should have been chosen in public, Will County State's
Atty. James Glasgow said Thursday he will seek new legislation
clarifying the question.

Glasgow said at least four other drug enforcement agencies across the
state have been ignoring the Illinois Open Meetings Act, including
those in DuPage and Kankakee Counties.

"The (DuPage unit) does not follow the Open Meetings Act, and they
take the same position I do that it would be ludicrous because what we
do requires secrecy or whole missions would be destroyed," he said.

Glasgow announced the drive for new legislation after first weighing a
proposal to seek a formal attorney general's opinion on whether the
governing boards of areawide drug squads should be meeting in public.

"I'm not going to be asking for an opinion because (other agencies)
concur that the Open Meetings Act does not apply," he said "But the
(law) is ambiguous, and we are going to be seeking an amendment to
clarify that ambiguity."

The announcement grows out of a furor over a closed-door meeting
Tuesday in which a 23-member policy board chose a new director for the
Joliet-based Metropolitan Area Narcotics Squad (MANS).

Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar, a MANS director, has contended that the
vote on the new boss of the unit should have been cast in public.

Glasgow and Grundy County State's Atty. Lance Peterson said the
cooperative drug enforcement unit is not subject to the law governing
public bodies because it conducts undercover drug investigations.

Claar, a longtime Republican foe of Democrat Glasgow, raised the
allegation after the candidate he backed for MANS chief was defeated,
reportedly by a narrow margin.

Lt. Martin Shifflet of the Will County Sheriff's Department was
selected to succeed Jerry Wall, a Bolingbrook police lieutenant who
has headed the drug enforcement agency for four years.

Shifflet beat out Carl Anderson, a state police sergeant who for the
last three years has been second in command of the unit staffed and
financed by communities and police agencies in Will and Grundy Counties.

"At the end of the year the state police have to present a review of
(agency) activities in public to the General Assembly, so what you
would ordinarily do in public is done there," Glasgow said.

Glasgow said he will ask the other agencies across the state as well
as the Illinois State's Attorneys Association to join in the effort to
clearly exempt the agencies from public meetings.

Claar said he doesn't consider the law unclear and noted that secrecy
can be maintained concerning law enforcement issues, but the vote on a
new administrator should be held in public.

"Quite frankly if there are public funds involved you can't avoid it.
Sometimes we wish we could avoid it, but you can't avoid it.

"He may want to seek legislation, but anybody who looks at it knows
you're already exempt for (law enforcement) issues. But for anything
else like the director and spending funds, that's public."

Long a breeding ground for interdepartmental jealousies among police
agencies, MANS frequently has been torn by power struggles within the
agency.

But this time around, intense lobbying among political figures,
including Claar and a representative of organized labor, marked the
weeks leading up to the vote.

The mayors and police chiefs who attended the meeting have generally
declined to discuss the wrangling, saying they fear prosecution if
they break the alleged confidentiality surrounding Tuesday's voting.

A spokesman for the Illinois attorney general's office said Wednesday
that MANS appeared to be a public body subject to the Open Meetings
Act.

His remarks were reserved for such police units in general and not the
Will County dispute in particular, leading to the quest for a formal
opinion to settle the matter.

The Open Meetings Act requires boards spending public money to
announce their meetings and agenda in advance and to keep minutes. It
permits closed-door sessions to discuss personnel and many law
enforcement issues but requires that final action be taken through a
public vote.

Formed in the early 1970s, MANS was intended to deal with drug
trafficking that crosses government jurisdictions and has been staffed
jointly by several municipalities and the sheriff and the state police.

Originally the governing board included only police officials, but
later mayors of the member communities were added.