Homer Township convened its Annual Town Meeting of Electors April 9 and voted on a measure for more meeting transparency. 

The State of Illinois mandates that all Townships hold the annual meeting each year on the second Tuesday of April. During the meeting, all Township residents are invited to participate and directly vote on issues that fall into 40 State-approved topics. 

Forty-seven residents attended the Homer meeting and elected Village of Homer Glen Trustee Keith Gray to serve as the moderator for the evening. 

Electors only had one issue to vote on for the 2019 meeting, which they supported unanimously. 

The measure requested the Homer Township Board “hire out, or make arrangements to video the monthly Township meetings, as well as any special meetings for easy access from the Township website.”

According to the request, which was submitted by resident petition on Feb. 4, “People that cannot make it to the meeting deserve the transparency a video will provide.”

The Township holds its regular monthly meeting on the second Monday of each month at 7 p.m. in the Old Town Hall. 

The vote at the Annual Town Meeting of Electors is not binding but considered an advisory vote. According to Gray, the board members, many of whom attended as residents, have said they will explore the option and could enact it later in the year.

“They are going to pass it on to their lawyer and look into the legality of it,” Gray said. “If it all checks out, I imagine they will do it. We need to have transparency at the local government level, so hopefully it will pass legal muster.”

The meeting was adjourned after just 10 minutes. The next regular Township meeting is scheduled to be held on May 13.