Village President Elizabeth Asperger believes La Grange sets an example for open government and responsible decision-making.

Brookfield resident Thom Rae thinks otherwise.

Asperger said she wanted to set the record straight.

At the May 11 Village Board meeting, Asperger responded to a scathing assessment of the village that ran as a spotlight piece in the May 3 issue of the Chicago Tribune under the headline “Weak laws let officials stonewall citizens.”

The article chronicled Rae’s attempts through the Freedom of Information Act to obtain documents related to the village’s plan to provide $1 million to bail out the La Grange Theatre. Rae was provided a three-page summary from Village Manager Robert Pilipiszyn with the majority of the text blacked out.

Asperger read a letter she wrote to the Tribune, first commending the paper for standing up for the public’s right to know, then taking reporter David Kidwell to task for “suggesting that officials in the village of La Grange inappropriately thwarted the public’s right to information regarding the La Grange Village Board’s decision to invest in a public/private venture to renovate the La Grange Theater.”

“Too bad that the Tribune would stoop to this about a community that exactly espouses everything they are trying to accomplish,” Asperger said. “(Kidwell) talked to Thom Rae and accepted his voice as verbatim. He talked to me and several trustees, but he ignored what others told him and tried somehow to sensationalize a non-event.”
Meanwhile, Rae is standing firm on his assertions.

“(Asperger), in her letter points out how (Attorney General) Lisa Madigan, in a related story in the Tribune, said she felt it was appropriate for preliminary drafts and opinions to be kept confidential,” Rae said. “What I pointed out was that several of the documents they withheld were documents that she identified in a public workshop and encouraged trustees to discuss openly. I was only able to request those specific documents because she so clearly identified them. I figured by the time you’re discussing documents in a public setting, they’re no longer preliminary drafts and not necessarily confidential.”

Asperger said the there were occasions when it is best for elected officials to “confidentially consider a proposal, review proprietary financial information or discuss preliminary recommendations regarding a sensitive matter.”