This is pretty weird.
Via: Chicago Tribune:
The Illinois Senate plans to meet behind closed doors this morning to hear a presentation by experts about state budgets and the national economy, a move that open government advocates called baffling.
The unusual secret gathering is being billed as a "joint caucus" of the majority Democrats and the minority Republicans, two groups that represent the entire 59 members of the Illinois Senate. The caucuses routinely meet separately to plot partisan strategy, and the public is not invited. But a joint meeting is very rare.
The spokeswoman for Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said the event will be closed because the presentation to be given by the Denver-based National Conference of State Legislatures will not fall under the state Constitution's requirements to be open.
But David Morrison, a top official with the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, said the move doesn't make sense.
"Setting aside the legal issues, I can't imagine what the NCSL is going to say that's so top secret that the general public will not be allowed to hear it," Morrison said.
The Constitution says, "Sessions of each house of the General Assembly and meetings of committees, joint committees and legislative commissions shall be open to the public.
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